| High energy density, high power density energy storage methods are necessary in order to meet the growing energy demands within the fields of grid stabilizing, personal power, backup power, mobile power, and military applications. Dielectric capacitive storage provides the necessary power and life time properties, but falls short in gravimetric energy storage and thereby eliminates them for large scale applications. Two material properties define the energy density of a dielectric layer: the dielectric constant and the breakdown as derived from the definition of capacitance. Former research that tries to increase both dielectric constant and breakdown field through nanocomposites consisted of mixing high dielectric nanoparticles with known high breakdown polymers with the assumption that, although both the dielectric constant and breakdown field will reduce below the pure materials, there will be an overall increase in energy density. However the interface of the nanoparticle and polymer matrix creates a void which acts as a charge concentrator, greatly reducing the breakdown field. The presented research focuses on eliminating this void through thiol alkene click chemistry between the nanoparticle and the polymer matrix. By designing a thermally and electronically stable polymer that is cured through UV processing, functionalized high dielectric constant nanoparticles can be directly bonded into a high breakdown polymer matrix. The design of a high breakdown material requires the control of the structure and chemistry to increase cross-linking, crystallinity, dipole traps, and dipole interactions. Thiol alkene click chemistry, combined with high energy curing techniques (such as xenon flash curing), offers the control necessary to design a polymer to create a high breakdown dielectric. The work presented demonstrates the drastic improvement of energy storage capabilities of nanocomposite dielectrics through the engineering of the particle-polymer interface. |
