Synthesis and characterization of scalable high permittivity core-shell ferroelectric polymers for energy storage solutions

Extensive interest is being invested into the research of polymer based nanodielectric films that provides a more practical energy storage solution primarily for embedded capacitors. Electrical dielectric constant (K) around 20 was reported using expensive gold (Au) coated with functionalized polystyrene (SiO2) shell i.e.;(Au-SiO2) nanoparticles inside a Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) polymer matrix.

This process has been improved as reported here by eliminating trivial functionalization steps to create a shell around a core by embedding a Polyvinilydine fluoride (PVDF) matrix, which is chemically inert to most solvents, with metal aluminum (Al) core nanoparticles surrounded by solid aluminum oxide (Al2O3) as a capping shell for electrical insulation.

Preliminary results show that proper loadings of oxidized aluminum (Al-Al2O3) nanoparticles in PVDF provide an improved dielectric constant and quality factor along with added structural flexibility. The dielectric constant, quality factor, frequency and thermal response of capacitance on structural parameters of the produced films for different loadings of embedded nanoparticles has been investigated. The effective dielectric constant of the nanocomposite has been modeled using COMSOL Multiphysics, and compared with experimental results. Also other dielectric properties of the nanocomposite have been studied using the simulation results.