For a while now I have submerged capacitor arrays in dielectric media to
suppress corona,. arc-over, etc. I first used castor oil (K=4.7) and that
worked fine, but it's not so easy to get. I read on a list dielectric
materials that glycerin has a high K (47-68!) but I was afraid that, being
anhydrous, it would absorb water and lead to corrosion. I set up four 20KV
caps in parallel in a bottle and filled it with off the shelf glycerin, the
USP kind sold as an emollient. After more than a year there isn't a speck of
corrosion on the caps or linking hardware.
Recently I found a new list of dielectric media and saw a listing for
"syrup" (?) having a K of 50-80. Apparently this is corn syrup. Now, corn
syrup ought to considerably cheaper than castor oil or glycerin. I think
I'll start a new bottled array soon. I don't suppose anyone out there has
tried this already?
PBT
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