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Polymer nanocomposite dielectrics for capacitive energy storage

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From Nature Nanotechnology

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Abstract

Owing to their excellent discharged energy density over a broad temperature range, polymer nanocomposites offer immense potential as dielectric materials in advanced electrical and electronic systems, such as intelligent electric vehicles, smart grids and renewable energy generation. In recent years, various nanoscale approaches have been developed to induce appreciable enhancement in discharged energy density. In this Review, we discuss the state-of-the-art polymer nanocomposites with improved energy density from three key aspects: dipole activity, breakdown resistance and heat tolerance. We also describe the physical properties of polymer nanocomposite interfaces, showing how the electrical, mechanical and thermal characteristics impact energy storage performances and how they are interrelated. Further, we discuss multi-level nanotechnologies including monomer design, crosslinking, polymer blending, nanofiller incorporation and multilayer fabrication. We conclude by presenting the current challenges and future opportunities in this field.

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Fig. 1: Application and investigation prospects of polymer dielectrics.
Fig. 2: Key characteristics to achieve high energy density in polymer dielectrics.
Fig. 3: Dipole activity.
Fig. 4: Breakdown resistance.
Fig. 5: Heat tolerance.
Fig. 6: Interface phenomena.
Fig. 7: Comparison and interrelationships between key characteristics of energy storage performance in polymer nanocomposite dielectrics.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 52388201 and 52027817), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant number 2022T150343)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Minzheng Yang, Mengfan Guo, Erxiang Xu, Weibin Ren, Ce-Wen Nan & Yang Shen

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Danyang Wang & Sean Li

  3. Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, AIIM, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

    Shujun Zhang

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  1. Minzheng Yang
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Yang, M., Guo, M., Xu, E. et al. Polymer nanocomposite dielectrics for capacitive energy storage. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01541-w

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