Dielectric, structural and thermal analyses of conductive titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx) filled ethylene-octene-copolymer nanocomposites

Exploring flexible dielectric materials with high dielectric constants and low dielectric loss is pertinent for many potential applications in modern electronics and energy storage devices. In the present work, a set of nanocomposites were successfully fabricated by incorporating the synthesized Ti3C2Tx (MXene) into ethylene-octene-copolymer (EOC) using a simple solution mixing technique followed by compression moulding. As prepared, Ti3C2Tx/EOC composites have been characterized by XRD (X-ray diffraction), TGA (thermogravimetric analysis), FESEM (field emission scanning electron microscopy) and DSC (differential scanning calorimetry). The formation of Ti3C2Tx-filled EOC samples were confirmed by FESEM and XRD. The DSC investigation shows that the percentage of crystallinity diminishes from 11.23 with 1 wt% to 10.82 with 15 wt% Ti3C2Tx loading, respectively, whereas the pristine EOC polymer was found to have a percentage of crystallinity value of 8.19. TGA results confirm that increasing the Ti3C2Tx loading improves the thermal stability of the composites. At room temperature, the dielectric and electrical properties of the prepared composites were assessed in the frequency range of 100 Hz-5 MHz. Among all weight percentages, the Ti3C2Tx/EOC composite film with 10 wt% Ti3C2Tx loading had the highest dielectric permittivity (epsilon ' = 60.80) and the lowest dissipation loss (tan delta = 0.4) at 100 Hz. At room temperature, AC conductivity of 3.27 x 10(-5) Omega(-1) m(-1) was recorded for the composite film with 10 wt% Ti3C2Tx loading. The semi-circular arc noticed in the Nyquist plot suggested that the present composites were non-Debye dielectric relaxation. The proposed Ti3C2Tx/EOC composites exhibit excellent thermal and electrical properties and thus can be applied in flexible electronic storage devices.