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Highlights: A bilayer dielectric film is prepared via coating boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) by solution casting on the surface of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film. The BNNS layer acts as the efficient barrier layer to suppress the charge injection, thereby making the surface-modified PET films exhibit excellent breakdown strength and electrostatic energy storage performance. The surface coating methods are accessible and suitable for large-scale roll-to-roll process production of dielectric films. The further electrification of various fields in production and daily life makes it a topic worthy of exploration to improve the performance of capacitors for a long time, including thin-film capacitors. The discharge energy density of thin-film capacitors that serves as one of the important types directly depends on electric field strength and the dielectric constant of the insulation material. However, it has long been a great challenge to improve the breakdown strength and dielectric constant simultaneously. Considering that boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS) possess superior insulation and thermal conductivity owing to wide band gap and 2-dimensional structure, a bilayer polymer film is prepared via coating BNNS by solution casting on surface of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films. By revealing the bandgap and insulating behavior with UV absorption spectrum, leakage current, and finite element calculation, it is manifested that nanocoating contributes to enhance the bandgap of polymer films, thereby suppressing the charge injection by redirecting their transport from electrodes. Worthy to note that an ultrahigh breakdown field strength (~ 736 MV m−1), an excellent discharge energy density (~ 8.77 J cm−3) and a prominent charge–discharge efficiency (~ 96.51%) are achieved concurrently, which is ascribed to the contribution of BNNS ultrathin layer. In addition, the modified PET films also have superior comprehensive performance at high temperatures (~ 120 °C). The materials and methods here selected are easily accessible and facile, which are suitable for large-scale roll-to-roll process production, and are of certain significance to explore the methods about film modification suitable for commercial promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer composites with high energy density have been of great interest to scientists for a long time, and this accounts for a great wealth of experimental data that are available for interpretation. One of the important phenomena is the variation rate of the permittivity of composites, which always deviates from the linear increase and rises steeply toward the high concentration. Interestingly, the critical transition concentration is always located in the range of 20 vol. %–25 vol. %, but still far less than the common percolation threshold of composites. Through the analysis of the local electric field distribution and surface polarized charges distribution, the phenomenon is successfully interpreted as the effect of the electrostatic interactions between the adjacent polarized particles. Two specified composite configurations (BCC and FCC) are designed, and their dielectric properties have been systematically studied with the help of the finite element method and the phase field method. The simulation results indicate that the strength of the particles' interaction is short-range effective and depends closely on the gap distance between adjacent particles. When the gap distance is smaller than 0.8 times the radius of the particles, which is tantamount to the concentration larger than 20 vol. % and 25 vol. % for BCC and FCC, respectively, the electrostatic interaction of the particles is rather significant, resulting in an additional contribution on the variation of the dielectric properties of composites and vice versa. The synchronous variation tendency between the simulation results and experimental measurements demonstrates the effect of electrostatic interaction on the dielectric properties of composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) with large electrically-actuated strain can build light-weight and flexible non-magnetic motors. However, dielectric elastomers commonly used in the field of soft actuation suffer from high stiffness, low strength, and high driving field, severely limiting the DEA's actuating performance. Here we design a new polyacrylate dielectric elastomer with optimized crosslinking network by rationally employing the difunctional macromolecular crosslinking agent. The proposed elastomer simultaneously possesses desirable modulus (~0.073 MPa), high toughness (elongation ~2400%), low mechanical loss (tan δm = 0.21@1 Hz, 20 °C), and satisfactory dielectric properties ( ε r = 5.75, tan δe = 0.0019 @1 kHz), and accordingly, large actuation strain (118% @ 70 MV m−1), high energy density (0.24 MJ m−3 @ 70 MV m−1), and rapid response (bandwidth above 100 Hz). Compared with VHBTM 4910, the non-magnetic motor made of our elastomer presents 15 times higher rotation speed. These findings offer a strategy to fabricate high-performance dielectric elastomers for soft actuators. Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) with large electrically actuated strain can be used in non-magnetic motors, but high stiffness, poor strength and slow response currently limit the application of DEAs. Here, the authors optimize the crosslinking network in a polyacrylate elastomer to enable a DEA with high toughness and actuation strain and use the polyacrylate to build a motor which can be driven under low electric field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer-based dielectrics are widely applied in the fields of electronics and electrical power systems due to the high breakdown strength, excellent flexibility, and unique self-healing capability. However, the low stored energy density and unsatisfactory heat management of polymer dielectrics hinder the development of polymer-based film capacitors. In this research, artificial composites with improved capacitive energy storage and thermal conductivity are fabricated by blending the two-dimensional semiconductive MXene sheets with a polyimide (PI) matrix. Remarkably, a PI based composite with 1 wt. % MXene sheets increases its dielectric permittivity from ≈3.27 to ≈3.53 and enhances its discharged energy density from ≈1.93 to ≈2.38 J/cm3 while maintaining its low dielectric loss of <0.02 and relatively high charge–discharge efficiency of >80%. Meanwhile, a high in-plane thermal conductivity of 0.418 W m−1 K−1 is achieved for PI/MXene composites with 5 wt. % MXene. In addition, the distribution of temperature field inside the composites has been investigated by a finite element method. These results represent a strategy in polymer dielectrics to achieve simultaneous high energy density and thermal conductivity, which may also have potential for applications in high temperature environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer‐based film capacitors with high breakdown strength and excellent flexibility are crucial in the field of advanced electronic devices and electric power systems. Although massive works are carried to enhance the energy storage performances, it is still a great challenge to improve the energy density of polymer composites under the premise of large‐scale industrial production. Herein, a general strategy is proposed to improve the intrinsic breakdown strength and energy storage performances by blending core‐shell structured methyl methacrylate‐butadiene‐styrene (MBS) rubber particles into a polymer matrix. Good compatibility and uniform dispersion state of MBS particles are observed in the matrix. Polarizing microscopy images show that blended films exhibit clear reduction of crystalline grains with the addition of MBS particles. Accordingly, an increased breakdown strength of 515 MV m−1 and discharged energy density of 12.33 J cm−3 are observed in poly(vinylidene fluoride‐co‐hexafluoropropylene)‐based composite films. Through comprehensive characterizations, it is believed that the superior energy storage performance of composite films is attributed to decreased crystalline grains, improved mechanical properties, and restriction on carrier motion. These results provide a novel design of dielectric polymers for high breakdown strength and discharged energy density applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer‐based dielectrics with fast electrostatic energy storage and release, are crucial for advanced electronics and power systems. However, the deterioration of insulation performance and charge–discharge efficiency of polymer dielectrics at elevated temperatures and high electric fields hinder the applications of capacitors in harsh environments. Herein, a facile and scalable approach is reported to fabricating flexible high‐temperature polymer dielectrics for high‐efficiency energy storage by ultraviolet irradiation. The resultant dielectric films exhibit an augment of 493% in energy density and exceeding 800% in discharge efficiency at 200 °C (3.2 J cm−3 and over 90% discharge efficiency at 480 M V−1m for irradiated polyetherimide (PEI), 0.54 J cm−3, and below 10% discharge efficiency at 400 MV m−1 for pristine PEI) and excellent cycle performance. The injected space charge is found to be the dominant contributor to energy loss during the charge–discharge process. Free radicals introduced by ultraviolet irradiation can act as deep traps to capture injected charge and suppress space charge migration. This work clarifies the contribution of space charge to energy loss and demonstrates the effectiveness of ultraviolet irradiation in improving the capacitive performance of high‐temperature polymer dielectrics. These findings provide a novel paradigm for the rational design of high‐temperature polymer dielectrics for high‐efficiency energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]