Effect of humidity in charge formation and transport in LDPE

Charge distribution and transport have been investigated in LDPE films with different humidity content under electric fields up to 130 MV/m. Pulsed electroacoustic measurements showed that, as water content increases, positive charge packets formation in the anode is enhanced and they propagate toward the cathode with higher transit speeds. Fits of surface potential decay measurements showed that charges in dry samples are injected directly into the volume, but the presence of moisture generates new trap centers in the surface of the material. This new trap level causes a charge accumulation on the surface, that gradually passes into the bulk. The observed behavior in development and propagation of charge packets are explained according to these results. Thermally stimulated depolarization current measurements showed a non-distributed relaxation associated to the new trap levels on the surface of the wet samples.