Chemical adsorption on 2D dielectric nanosheets for matrix free nanocomposites with ultrahigh electrical energy storage

Relaxor ferroelectric polymers display great potential in capacitor dielectric applications because of their excellent flexibility, light weight, and high dielectric constant. However, their electrical energy storage capacity is limited by their high conduction losses and low dielectric strength, which primarily originates from the impact-ionization-induced electron multiplication, low mechanical modulus, and low thermal conductivity of the dielectric polymers. Here a matrix free strategy is developed to effectively suppress electron multiplication effects and to enhance mechanical modulus and thermal conductivity of a dielectric polymer, which involves the chemical adsorption of an electron barrier layer on boron nitride nanosheet surfaces by chemically adsorbing an amino-containing polymer. A dramatic decrease of leakage current (from 2.4 × 10⁻⁶ to 1.1 × 10⁻⁷ A cm⁻² at 100 MV m⁻¹) and a substantial increase of breakdown strength (from 340 to 742 MV m⁻¹) were achieved in the nanocompostes, which result in a remarkable increase of discharge energy density (from 5.2 to 31.8 J cm⁻³). Moreover, the dielectric strength of the nanocomposites suffering an electrical breakdown could be restored to 88% of the original value. This study demonstrates a rational design for fabricating dielectric polymer nanocomposites with greatly enhanced electric energy storage capacity.