Composite of Aromatic Polythiourea/BaTiO3 Nanowires with High Energy Density and High Discharge Efficiency for Energy Storage Applications
Abstract Ceramic/polymer nanocomposites have shown great potential in high energy storage density capacitors for pulsed power applications. However, due to the difference in surface energy between inorganic fillers and polymers, the discharge energy density and efficiency of nanocomposites are limited. In this article, the BaTiO3 (BT) nanowires (nws) modified with dopamine (Dopa) was introduced into aromatic polythiourea (ArPTU) polymer matrix as composite for high performance dielectrics. This is a new path about the introduction of a high dielectric constant ceramic into high dipole moment linear polymers (HDMLP), which produces the polymer composite with high energy storage density and high discharge efficiency. The composite ArPTU/BT nws shows an energy density of 7.5 Jcm-3 and high efficiency more than 90 % is obtained under an electric field of 250 MVm-1. It also has been found that the modification of BT nws with the dopamine reduces the dielectric loss of composite effectively due to the good synergistic effective between ArPTU and BT nws, and high stability of composite for energy storage is also achieved. This work provides an effective solution for achieving high energy storage density and high discharge efficiency in polymer dielectrics for practical capacitor applications.