Speaker: Yang Shen
Place: Conference Room 617, Building Chao Kuang Piu, School of Materials Science & Engineering
Title: Polymer Nanocomposite Dielectrics for Energy Storage: Fundamentals, Recent Progresses & Future Perspectives
Time: 9th May, 2019, 10:00 a.m.
Inviter: Xiangming Chen, Xiaoli Zhu
Abstract:
Polymer nanocomposites, which combines high dielectric permittivity (er) of ceramics and high breakdown strength (Eb) of polymers, are promising dielectrics for high power electrostatic capacitors. Capable of delivering ultrahigh power, they are the major enabler for a number of modern electrical and electronic devices. Tremendous efforts have been made to break the adverse coupling between er and Eb and raise their low energy density, make them viable for energy storage applications. Along this line, recent progresses are reviewed. By modulating the ceramic/polymer interface or employing novel design paradigm of nanocomposites, concomitant enhancement of er and Ebis achieved, giving rise to ultrahigh energy density (enhanced by ~ 1800% over biaxially-oriented polypropylene, the bench-mark polymer dielectric). Phase-field simulations are employed to understand the breakdown process and for high-throughput design of nanocomposite dielectrics. Besides energy density, thermal stability of polymer nanocomposite dielectrics, especially at high temperature and high voltage, is very recently considered as of critical significance. Further improvement of energy storage performance may lie in the synergistic modulation of electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites.
