Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The introduction of inorganic components into a polymer matrix to form polymer composites is an emerging and promising approach to dielectric materials for capacitive energy storage. Ferroelectric polymers are particularly attractive as matrices for dielectric polymer composites owing to their highest dielectric constant (≥10) among the known polymers. Here, the important aspects and recent advances in the development of the ferroelectric-polymer-based dielectric polymer composites for high-energy-density capacitor applications are summarized. The preparation methods of ferroelectric-polymer composites with 0D, 1D, and 2D nanostructured fillers, surface-modified nanofillers, and hierarchically structured fillers, and their comprehensive impacts on the dielectric properties, breakdown strength, and energy density of the resulting composites are described. The most recent progress on the incorporation of multiple nanofillers with complementary functionalities into ferroelectric polymers and the design of layer-structured ferroelectric-polymer composites is also highlighted. A discussion of the scientific and technological issues that remain to be addressed and an outlook for the future of ferroelectric polymer-based dielectric composites are also presented.