Journal of Atomic, Molecular, Condensed Matter & Nano Physics Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 71–81, 2021 ISSN 2582-8215 Published by RGN Publications http://www.rgnpublications.com DOI: 10.26713/jamcnp.v8i1.1549 Research Article Boron Nitride Nanotubes-Based Gas Sensors of SF 6 Decomposed Components for Analyzing the Running Status of High-Voltage Insulated Equipment Chenaf Tahar * 1 , Zegnini Boubakeur 1 , Seghier Tahar 1 and Benghia Ali 2 1 Laboratoire d’étude et développement des matériaux semi-conducteurs et diélectriques, Amar Telidji University of Laghouat, BP 37G, Laghouat 03000, Algeria 2 Laboratoire de physique des matériaux, Amar Telidji University of Laghouat, BP 37G, Laghouat 03000, Algeria Received: February 12, 2021 Accepted: March 28, 2021 Communicated by: Sarah El Himer Abstract. Gas-insulated equipment using sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) as insulation and arc extinguishing media such as Gas Insulated Station (GIS) has been widely used in the field of high voltage power systems. However, the internal insulation defect existed in GIS would inevitably lead to Partial Discharge (PD), and cause the composition of SF 6 to HF, SF 4 , SOF 2 , SO 2 F 2 and SO 2 and other characteristic component gases. The decomposition phenomenon would greatly reduce the insulation performance of SF 6 insulated equipment, and lead to insulation faults and power failure. Many sensing nonmaterial’s such as carbon nanotube and graphene, metal oxides such as SnO 2 TiO 2 , and ZnO were explored as chemical gas sensors to detect SF 6 decomposed species with rapid response, high sensitivity and selectivity, in order to guarantee the operation status of SF 6 insulation equipments. In this paper, we attempt to comprehensively understand the adsorption and sensing property of BNNT to SO 2 , SOF 2 and SO 2 F 2 were investigated based on the DFT method to explore its potential as a chemical gas sensor. Our theoretical simulation results show that BNNT could be a promising sensor for sensitive detection which would be beneficial for evaluating the running status of SF6 high voltage insulated equipments. Keywords. Dielectric material; Gas SF 6 ; Decomposition products; BN nanotube; Molecular dynamics; Adsorption; Gap Energy; Density Functional Theory (DFT) PACS. 73.63.Fg; 61.43.Bn; 31.15.Ew; 07.07.Df Copyright © 2021 Chenaf Tahar, Zegnini Boubakeur, Seghier Tahar and Benghia Ali. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. * Corresponding author: chenaf.tahar@laghouat.sadeg.dz