High-Temperature Dielectric Energy Storage Materials Fabricated by Crosslinking Titanium Dioxide and Polyarylene Ether Nitrile

Abstract

Dielectric materials have broad application prospects in the field of high-temperature electronic power systems. Up to now, high-temperature dielectric materials are mainly prepared by using high glass transition temperature (T_g) polymers. However, the incompatibility between polymers and fillers, which are incorporated for high energy density, leads to soaring dielectric losses at high temperatures, resulting in a nosedive of discharged energy density (U_d) and efficiency (η). In this paper, we report the fabrication of high-temperature dielectric materials via the self-crosslinking of phthalonitriles from phthalonitriles modified titanium dioxide (TiO₂-2CN) and phthalonitriles terminated polyarylene ether nitrile (PEN-2CN). TiO₂-2CN is firstly synthesized and characterized, then incorporated into PEN-2CN to prepare TiO₂/PEN nanocomposites, which transform into TiO₂-PEN hybrids afterwards. The fabricated TiO₂-PEN hybrids are confirmed by the change of SEM sectional morphology, as well as the increase of their T_g and thermal decomposition temperature (T_d). With the addition of TiO₂-2CN, both the T_g, T_d, and U_d of TiO₂/PEN nanocomposites are improved. In addition, due to the formation of covalent bonds within TiO₂-PEN, the hybrids exhibit excellent high-temperature dielectric energy storage performance. Specifically, at 150 °C, the U_d of 10 wt% TiO₂-PEN is 0.60 J/cm⁻³, which is over 95% of that at RT. Moreover, η is greater than 90% and remains unchanged after 10,000 charge and discharge cycles. This method used for preparing TiO₂-PEN hybrids through a self-crosslinking reaction of phthalonitriles provides a new approach for preparing high-temperature dielectric materials.

Keywords

Dielectric materials / Energy density / High-temperature / Crosslinking

Author Contributions

Methodology, Y.F.; Formal Analysis, S.B., Z.W., Y.L. and Y.J.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, Y.F.; Writing—Review & Editing, R.W.; Funding Acquisition, L.W., X.H. and R.W.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Data can be provided upon request.

Funding

This research was funded by Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (2024-JC-YBQN-0140) and KeyR&D Program Projects in Shaanxi Province (2023JBGS-22).

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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