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Realizing enhanced dielectric and mechanical performance of polyvinylidene fluoride/SiC nanocomposites through a bio-inspired interface design

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Abstract

The incorporation of high-dielectric permittivity ceramic or conductive fillers into the polymer is an effective method to obtain flexible high-performance dielectric materials, but it is still a huge challenge to achieve a balance between dielectric and mechanical properties. In this paper, we report a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanocomposite based on a novel crab leg-like filler, in which Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) were decorated on the surface of polydopamine (PDA)-coated silicon carbide (SiC) nanowhiskers (NWs). Compared with the nanocomposites with as-received SiC, this PVDF/SiC@PDA@Ag nanocomposites exhibited significantly suppressed dielectric loss (0.03 at 1 kHz) and leakage current. The Argant plot (\({\varepsilon }^{^{\prime}}\)- \({\varepsilon }^{\prime\prime}\) curve) and electric modulus analysis demonstrated that the inhibition of the organic layer of PDA to interface polarization and the coulomb-blockade effect of AgNPs hindered carrier transport, which resulted in the largely suppressed dielectric loss. Furthermore, while the dielectric properties were improved, the PVDF/SiC@PDA@Ag nanocomposites also exhibited excellent mechanical and thermal conductivity. Ultimately, the nanocomposites prepared via this method are promising for applications in microelectronic devices.

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Funding

We received financial support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFB0302000), Science and Technology Planning Program of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2020A0505100010), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (No. 2019MS062), and the Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering (South China University of Technology), Ministry of Education of China (No. KFKT1904).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Research Center of Novel Equipment for Polymer Processing, Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering of Ministry of Education, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Technique and Equipment for Macromolecular Advanced Manufacturing, School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Yi-zhang Tong, Wan-jing Zhao, Wei Wu, Guang-jian He, Zhi-tao Yang & Xian-wu Cao

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Wei Wu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Power Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Dong-li Zhang

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  1. Yi-zhang Tong
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  2. Wan-jing Zhao
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  3. Wei Wu
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  4. Dong-li Zhang
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  5. Guang-jian He
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Contributions

Yi-zhang Tong: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Writing—original draft. Wan-jing Zhao: Methodology, Investigation. Wei Wu: Conceptualization, Investigation. Dong-li Zhang: Resources. Guang-jian He: Supervision, Funding acquisition. Zhi-tao Yang: Writing—review and editing, Supervision. Xian-wu Cao: Writing—review and editing, Resources, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Zhi-tao Yang or Xian-wu Cao.

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Tong, Yz., Zhao, Wj., Wu, W. et al. Realizing enhanced dielectric and mechanical performance of polyvinylidene fluoride/SiC nanocomposites through a bio-inspired interface design. Adv Compos Hybrid Mater 5, 263–277 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-021-00333-x

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