Effect of Fly Ash Addition on Electrical Properties of MultiLayer Plastic Packaging Composite

This study reports the effect of adding fly ash on the electrical properties of the composite multi-layer plastic packaging (MLP) and the moisture content in this composite material as additional parameters to support this study. In particular, post-consumer MLP with various fly ash contents with the composition of 0, 5, 10, and 20 wt% were processed using a single screw extruder at a temperature of 180 - 260^oC and 100 rpm. Test specimens for electrical properties evaluations were prepared using a compression molding machine. The elemental analysis was examined using EDS. Moisture content was measured according to ISO 16979. Electrical properties in the form of surface resistivity, capacitance/dielectric constant/tangent delta, and dielectric breakdown strength were measured according to ASTM D257, ASTM D150, and ASTM D149 respectively. The ultimate analysis result shows that fly ash was composed mostly of SiO₂ and Al₂O₃. The moisture content was significantly increased at 20 wt% of fly ash with a value of 2.54%. Furthermore, the addition of fly ash content in MLP plastic composites affects the increased surface resistivity from 9 to 100 TΩ, capacitance values from 9.2 to 12.8 pF, the dielectric constant value from 2.9 to 3.3, tangent delta value from 0.010 to 0.024 and dielectric breakdown voltage from 50.2 kV/cm to 94.5 kV/cm. Generally, the results of the electrical properties investigation suggest that the MLP plastic and fly ash composite have the potential as a material for electronic applications.