Search

Plastic film capacitors are widely used in pulse and energy storage applications because of their high breakdown strength, high power density, long lifetime, and excellent self-healing properties. Nowadays, the energy storage density of commercial biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) is limited by its low dielectric constant (~2.2). Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) exhibits a relatively high dielectric constant and breakdown strength, making it a candidate material for electrostatic capacitors. However, PVDF presents significant losses, generating a lot of waste heat. In this paper, under the guidance of the leakage mechanism, a high-insulation polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coating is sprayed on the surface of a PVDF film. The potential barrier at the electrode–dielectric interface is raised by simply spraying PTFE and reducing the leakage current, and then the energy storage density is increased. After introducing the PTFE insulation coating, the high-field leakage current in the PVDF film shows an order of magnitude reduction. Moreover, the composite film presents a 30.8% improvement in breakdown strength, and a 70% enhancement in energy storage density is simultaneously achieved. The all-organic structure design provides a new idea for the application of PVDF in electrostatic capacitors.

Abstract Construct dielectric films with high energy density and efficiency are the key factor to fabricate high-performance dielectric film capacitors. In this paper, an all organic composite film was constructed based on high dielectric polymer and linear dielectric polymer. After the optimized polycondensation reaction of a linear dielectric polymer aromatic polythiourea (ArPTU), the proper molecular weight ArPTU was obtained, which was introduced into poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE-CFE) terpolymer for a composite dielectrics. The results indicate that the addition of ArPTU molecules reduces the dielectric loss and improves the breakdown field strength of the PVDF-TrFE-CFE effectively. For the PVDF-TrFE-CFE/ArPTU (90/10) composite film, the maximum energy density about 22.06 J/cm3 at 407.57 MV/m was achieved, and high discharge efficiency about 72% was presented. This composite material can be casted on flexible substrate easily, and PVDF-TrFE-CFE/ArPTU organic composite films having high energy density, high breakdown field strength, low dielectric loss, and higher discharge efficiency are obtained. This is an unreported exploration about high energy density organic dielectric films based on PVDF-TrFE-CFE matrix and linear polymer dielectrics, and the findings of this research can provide a simple and scalable method for producing flexible high energy density materials for energy storage devices.

Abstract The three-dimensional (3D) porous nanostructures have shown attractive promise for flexible microsupercapacitors due to their merits of more exposed electrochemical active sites, higher ion diffusion coefficient, and lower charge-transfer resistance. Herein, a highly opened 3D network of reduced graphene oxide/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (rGO/PEDOT) was constructed through the laser-assisted treatment and in situ vapor phase polymerization methods, which can be employed with gel electrolyte to prepare flexible microsupercapacitors, without conductive additives, polymer binder, separator, or complex processing. These porous open network structures endow the obtained microsupercapacitors with a maximum specific capacitance (35.12 F cm−3 at 80 mA cm−3), the corresponding energy density up to 4.876 mWh cm−3, remarkable cycling stability (with only about 9.8% loss after 4000 cycles), and excellent coulombic efficiency, which are comparable with most previous reported rGO-based microsupercapacitors. Additionally, the microsupercapacitors connected in series/parallel have been conveniently fabricated, followed by being integrated with solar cells as efficient energy harvesting and storage systems. Moreover, the working voltage or energy density of microsupercapacitors array can be easily tailored according to the practical requirements and this work provides a promising approach to prepare high-performance flexible micro-energy device applied in the wearable electronics accordingly.

Abstract We report chemical in situ deposition of conducting polymer poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets through a simple hydrothermal polymerization method. The functional groups on graphene oxide (GO) were directly employed as an oxidant to trigger the polymerization of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT), and the GO nanosheets were reduced into rGO accordingly in an aqueous environment. Well anchoring of ultrathin PEDOT on rGO through this oxidant-free method was confirmed by UV-Vis spectrum, FT-IR spectrum, SEM, and TEM analysis. The obvious enhancement of conductivity was observed after the covering of PEDOT on rGO, and this composite showed high conductivity about 88.5 S/cm. The electrochemical performance results revealed that rGO/PEDOT composite electrode exhibits high specific capacitance about 202.7 F/g. The good synergetic effect between PEDOT and rGO also makes sure highly stable reversibility of composite electrode during charging/discharging process, and more than 90% initial capacitance retains after 9000 times cycles. In addition, the electrode based on rGO/PEDOT deposited on the cotton fabric shows excellent flexible ability with the evidence that 98% of the initial capacitance of electrode maintained after three thousands of free bending, which shows promising energy storage performance for flexible devices. .

The application prospects of dielectric materials such as poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) based polymers in the field of energy storage have stimulated extensive research. In this study, the energy storage characteristics of poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (P(VDF-HFP)) films crystallized from several solvents with different vapor pressure were investigated. The charge-discharge efficiency of the P (VDF-HFP) film crystallized from N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) demonstrates an efficiency of 85% under an electric field of 1000 kV cm ^−1 , which is 1.42 times of the film crystallized from dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Meanwhile, the insulation resistivity of the film crystallized from DMF is also higher than other films, and the energy storage characteristics are optimal in this study. This work provides guidance for the preparation of PVDF-based polymer films using the solution method.