Lead free Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BNT) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) based nanocomposite for energy storage applications.

Novel ceramic-polymer nanocomposites have great potential for electrical energy storage applications due to its high energy storage density. In the present work, BNT and PVDF based flexible polymer nanocomposites (BNT-PVDF) with different volume fraction (<italic>ϕ</italic> = 0, 5, 10, 15) were fabricated by solution casting method. Enhancement in beta phase of PVDF polymer matrix with the volume fraction (<italic>ϕ</italic> = 5, 10, 15) of BNT has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique as well as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis. The enhancement of <italic>β</italic> phase increases as compared to (<italic>α</italic>) phases with volume fraction (<italic>ϕ</italic>) of nanofiller (BNT) in the matrix (PVDF) due to internal stress at the interface as well as structural modification of PVDF matrix. BNT-PVDF nanocomposites (with <italic>ϕ</italic>=10) showed a high dielectric constant (ε_{<italic>r</italic>} ≈ 78) relative to pure PVDF (ε_{<italic>r</italic>} ≈ 10) at 100 Hz. In addition to this, it exhibits relaxor type ferroelectric behavior with energy storage efficiency up to 77% for the volume fraction (<italic>ϕ</italic>) of 10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]