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Title: Directed self-assembly of block copolymers for high breakdown strength polymer film capacitors

Journal Article · · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [2];  [5];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Akron, Akron, OH (United States)
  2. Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH (United States)
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  4. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States)
  5. Howard Univ., Washington, D.C. (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Emerging needs for fast charge/discharge yet high-power, lightweight, and flexible electronics requires the use of polymer-film-based solid-state capacitors with high energy densities. Fast charge/discharge rates of film capacitors on the order of microseconds are not achievable with slower charging conventional batteries, supercapacitors and related hybrid technologies. However, the current energy densities of polymer film capacitors fall short of rising demand, and could be significantly enhanced by increasing the breakdown strength (EBD) and dielectric permittivity (εr) of the polymer films. Co-extruded two-homopolymer component multilayered films have demonstrated much promise in this regard showing higher EBD over that of component polymers. Multilayered films can also help incorporate functional features besides energy storage, such as enhanced optical, mechanical, thermal and barrier properties. In this work, we report accomplishing multilayer, multicomponent block copolymer dielectric films (BCDF) with soft-shear driven highly oriented self-assembled lamellar diblock copolymers (BCP) as a novel application of this important class of self-assembling materials. Results of a model PS-b-PMMA system show ~50% enhancement in EBD of self-assembled multilayer lamellar BCP films compared to unordered as-cast films, indicating that the breakdown is highly sensitive to the nanostructure of the BCP. The enhancement in EBD is attributed to the “barrier effect”, where the multiple interfaces between the lamellae block components act as barriers to the dielectric breakdown through the film. The increase in EBD corresponds to more than doubling the energy storage capacity using a straightforward directed self-assembly strategy. Lastly, this approach opens a new nanomaterial paradigm for designing high energy density dielectric materials.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC00112704
OSTI ID:
1328368
Report Number(s):
BNL-112668-2016-JA; R&D Project: 16075; 16075; KC0403020
Journal Information:
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 8, Issue 12; ISSN 1944-8244
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 51 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (9)

Rapid ordering of block copolymer thin films journal August 2016
PMMA-LZO Composite Dielectric Film with an Improved Energy Storage Density journal September 2019
Block copolymers for supercapacitors, dielectric capacitors and batteries journal March 2019
Electroactive materials with tunable response based on block copolymer self-assembly journal February 2019
Photothermally Directed Assembly of Block Copolymers journal December 2019
Mechanical and dielectric properties and crystalline behavior of multilayer graphite‐filled polyethylene composites journal June 2019
Nacre-like nanocomposite film with excellent dielectric insulation properties and mechanical strength based on montmorillonite nanosheet and aramid nanofiber journal February 2020
Tuning the mechanical and dielectric properties of clay-containing thermoplastic elastomer nanocomposites journal March 2018
Enhanced mechanical and electrical insulating properties of (poly(para-phenylene terephthamide)) PPTA-based specialty paper with nanoscale PPTA fibers journal July 2019

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Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
self-assembly
Center for Functional Nanomaterials
barrier effect
block copolymer
breakdown strength
capacitor
cold zone annealing−soft shear
dielectric
directed self-assembly
lamellae