Surface Conduction and Losses of an Insulator Wetted by a Liquid Dielectric

After an overview of the present knowledge of surface conduction along solid insulators in vacuum, air, water vapor, or on solids wetted by conducting liquids, the authors present a discussion of results obtained with solid insulators immersed in insulating liquids. They emphasize how the standpoint of Interfacial Chemistry, using the concept of the electrical double layer, may be transposed to the field of insulator interfaces. The fundamental parameter is the electrochemical potential characterizing the physico-chemical interaction between the solid and the liquid; it is thought that it results from the specific adsorption of species (unknown at the present time) at the interface.