High energy density polymer composites for pulse-power applications

In this work, we have investigated the dielectric integrity of P(VDF-HFP)/CCTO and PS/CCTO composites. An attempt has been made to understand the effect of filler preparation method (sol-gel vs. solid state) and loading on dielectric permittivity, loss, DC breakdown, and energy density of the resulting composites. The composites show high dielectric permittivity with increasing addition of CCTO fillers, presumably due to the giant dielectric permittivity exhibited by these fillers. DC breakdown measurements performed by embedding spherical electrodes into composite films show low breakdown strength at very high filler loadings (40 vol. %) possibly due to percolative effects of fillers. Nonetheless, at lower filler loadings (<;20 vol. %), the composites show high permittivities and lower reduction in breakdown strength leading to high calculated energy densities of 12 J/cc. With an optimized filler loading, we have achieved a composite system capable of storing large electric energy desirable for pulse power application.