Improvement of high-temperature energy storage performance in polymer dielectrics by nanofillers with defect spinel structure

The electrostatic energy storage performance of polymer dielectrics at high temperature and high electric field can be significantly improved by the incorporation of wide-bandgap, nano-sized particles. It is traditionally believed that the embedded nanoparticles can scatter the hot charges and lead to charge trapping in the interfacial region, which suppress the conduction loss and promote the energy storage performance. In this work, the nano-sized gamma-Al2O3 with cubic defect spinel structure and nano-sized alpha-Al2O3 with a wider bandgap are introduced into a heat-resistant dielectric polymer, respectively, to form two different nanocomposites. The field-dependent energy storage performance, electrical conductivity, and breakdown strength of the polymer nanocomposites at high temperatures, as well as the thermally stimulated depolarization current, are investigated. The results indicate that the intrinsic deep traps introduced by gamma-Al2O3 with cubic defect spinel structure are a more critical factor in improving the energy storage performance of the polymer-based composites. We anticipate that our findings reported in this work may help to better guide the selection of nanofillers for high-temperature dielectric polymer nanocomposites. (C) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.