MURI: Tracking, Diagnosing, and Impeding Dielectric Breakdown in Polymers

A multi-university team of researchers led by Prof. Rampi Ramprisad of UConn was recently awarded a $7.5M MURI research grant from the DoD. The program investigates how insulating materials exposed to very high electric fields break down. “This program is about understanding how insulators behave when exposed to high electric fields,” said Ramprasad, professor of materials science and engineering. “If you want to design materials that are tolerant to enormous electric fields, you must first understand how they fail.”