Issue 1, 2019

A versatile foaming platform to fabricate polymer/carbon composites with high dielectric permittivity and ultra-low dielectric loss

Abstract

There is an urgent need for dielectric-based capacitors to manage the increase in storage systems related to renewable energy production. Such capacitors must have superior qualities that include light weight, a high dielectric constant, and ultra-low dielectric loss. Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/carbon (carbon nanotube (CNT) or graphene nanoplatelet (GnP)) nanocomposite foams are considered promising alternatives to solid PVDF/carbon nanocomposites. This is because they have excellent dielectric properties, which are due to the preferred orientation of their carbon materials occurring in the foaming process. In the PVDF/carbon foams, their microcellular structure significantly influenced their electrical conductivity and dielectric properties. In the PVDF/CNT composite foams, the electrical conductivity was increased by an increased degree of foaming that was below a critical foaming degree. The CNTs even formed conductive networks and this caused current leakage. Thus, in the PVDF/CNT foam sample with an expansion ratio of 4.0 where a high dielectric constant of 80.6 was obtained, a relatively high dielectric loss of 3.51 was observed at the same time. In the PVDF/GnP composite foams, the presence of a microcellular structure forcefully increased the distance between GnPs. This induced and produced the insulating quality of the PVDF/GnP foams. In addition, the parallel graphene nanoplatelets that accompanied this process were close together, and they isolated the polymer layer, or air, as a medium between themselves. An unprecedentedly high dielectric constant of 112.1 and an ultra-low dielectric loss of 0.032 at 100 Hz were obtained from the PVDF/GnP composite foam with a high expansion ratio of 4.4 due to charge accumulation at the aligned conductive filler/insulating polymer (or air bubble) interface.

Graphical abstract: A versatile foaming platform to fabricate polymer/carbon composites with high dielectric permittivity and ultra-low dielectric loss

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Мау. 2018
Accepted
17 Там. 2018
First published
20 Там. 2018

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2019,7, 133-140

A versatile foaming platform to fabricate polymer/carbon composites with high dielectric permittivity and ultra-low dielectric loss

B. Zhao, M. Hamidinejad, C. Zhao, R. Li, S. Wang, Y. Kazemi and C. B. Park, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2019, 7, 133 DOI: 10.1039/C8TA05556D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements