Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The exploration of high-energy-density electrostatic capacitors capable of operating both efficiently and reliably at elevated temperatures is of great significance in order to meet advanced power electronic applications. The energy density of a capacitor is strongly dependent on dielectric constant and breakdown strength of a dielectric material. Here, we demonstrate a class of solution-processable polymer nanocomposites exhibiting a concurrent improvement in dielectric constant and breakdown strength, which typically show a negative correlation in conventional dielectric materials, along with a reduction in dielectric loss. The excellent performance is enabled by the elegant combination of nanostructured barium titanate and boron nitride fillers with complementary functionalities. The ternary polymer nanocomposite with the optimized filler compositions delivers a discharged energy density of 2.92 J cm−3 and a Weibull breakdown strength of 547 MV m−1 at 150°C, which are 83% and 25%, respectively, greater than those of the pristine polymer. The conduction behaviors including interfacial barrier and carrier transport process have been investigated to rationalize the energy storage performance of ternary polymer nanocomposite. This contribution provides a new design paradigm for scalable high-temperature polymer film capacitors. (Figure presented.).