Curly-Packed Structure Polymers for High-Temperature Capacitive Energy Storage

CY Zhou and WH Xu and B Zhang and YH Zhang and C Shen and QF Xu and X Liu and F Bertram and J Bernholc and ZH Jiang and YS Shang and HB Zhang, CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS, 34, 2333-2341 (2022).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c04220

Polymer film capacitors are ubiquitous in modern electronics and electric systems, but the relatively low working temperatures of polymer dielectrics limit their application in next-generation capacitors. The currently reported high-temperature polymer dielectrics rely on the construction of nanocomposites with wide band gap fillers and cross- linked networks to achieve high breakdown strength and high efficiencies. However, generating the optimal chain structure with intrinsic great high-temperature capacitive properties using a one- component polymer is still challenging. Herein, a giant discharged energy density in neat polymer has been demonstrated in a series of linear poly(arylene ether amide) (PNFA) at 150 degrees C, which greatly surpass all the current free-standing dielectric polymer films measured in 10 Hz. The maximum discharged energy density with efficiency above 90% of the PNFA is 2.7 J cm(-3), which is about 3 times that of the state-of-the-art commercial high-temperature polymer films. The architectures of the amorphous polymers have been identified by synchrotron X-ray diffraction combined with density functional theory calculations. The origins of superior high-temperature capacitive properties are traced to the increased packing density by the curly- packed chain structure. In addition, the reported polymer could be produced using existing industrial-grade processes, which are economical and practical for large-scale applications.

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