The problem of determining the antioxidant additive in transformer oil by chromatographic methods

Abstract

THE PURPOSE. Transformer oil is widely used in high-voltage electrical equipment and acts as a dielectric and also as a cooling medium. It consists of a complex mixture of hydrocarbon compositions with various impurity compounds. During the operation of oil -filled electrical equipment under the influence of the technological operating conditions of high -voltage devices, aging of both transformer oil and solid insulation occurs. In this case, the dielectric properties deteriorate, which can damage the transformer equipme nt. METHODS. To increase the service life of oil-filled electrical equipment, an antioxidant additive is introduced into the transformer oil at the stage of its manufacture, which is most often used as ionol, the concentration of which must be constantly controlled by various instrumental methods. To determine the antioxidant additive in transformer oil, a sample preparation system is used based on liquid-phase extraction with selective solvents, which are used as aliphatic alcohols of various physical and chemical nature. RESULTS. It has been established that ethyl alcohol, which is widely used in the sample preparation system for liquid extraction of ionol, contains a significant amount of water, which has a negative effect on the process of ionol extracti on from transformer oil. In addition, the composition of ethyl alcohol contains impurity substances that can have a negative effect on the process of liquid-phase extraction of ionol from transformer oil. The generalized data on the physicochemical properties of extractants used to extract ionol from transformer oil are presented. CONLUSION. It has been shown that butanol is the most promising organic solvent for the extraction of ionol, which has a higher boiling point compared to ethyl alcohol and contains a small amount of water. It was found that the selectivity of the chromatographic separation of butanol components with an elevated column temperature increases. At the same time, the separation efficiency increases as the number of theoretical plates per meter of chromatographic column increases. As the temperature of the capillary column increases, the symmetry of the chromatographic peaks of the separated components also increases.