Enhanced electron evacuation performance of zinc oxide nanocomposites for sustainable energy storage technology

In recent year, there has been a dramatic increase in renewable energy from the windiest and solar-rich areas. Consequently, energy storage has many potential applications in generation grid integration, power transmission and distribution of green energy. Polypropylene (PP) is a representative electrical insulator used in electrets and dielectric capacitors in energy storage devices. The properties of PP are severely affected by accumulation of surface charge, and the use of PP remains limited by its low dielectric constant. Adding nanoparticles to PP is an effective way to increase its dielectric constant and enhance the evacuation of electrons both on the surface and in the bulk. Thus, in this paper, we investigated how adding zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles to PP affected its decay characteristics, dielectric constant, and conductivity. In this paper, the mechanisms of surface potential decay were discussed. Adding the ZnO particles increased the dielectric constant and conductivity of the PP. Experiments show that the surface potential of PP with added ZnO particles decayed faster than that of the pure PP. Also, the PP/ZnO nanocomposites showed more partial discharge and more electron transport and evacuation. These results will spur further research into energy conversion and storage using nanotructured materials.