The continuous progress of microelectronic technology requires polymer materials with low dielectric constant, low dielectric loss, excellent mechanical properties and heat stability. As an emerging advanced polymer, poly(arylene ether nitrile) has shown great potential in the field of microelectronics. However, there is still a need to decrease its inherent dielectric constant and dielectric loss. In this work, the cross-linked poly(arylene ether nitrile) containing propenyl and trifluoromethyl groups (PEN) was designed and synthesized. Then the cage-like structure of octaphenyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (OPOSS) was introduced to prepare the composite membranes by solution-casting method. After undergoing thermal treatment, dual cross-linked networks were formed, with OPOSS securely embedded within them. The results show that the composite films exhibit significantly enhanced heat stability (T 5% ≥ 491 °C), tensile strength (≥72 MPa) and remain great hydrophobicity (106.6–114.2°). More importantly, among all the composite films, the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the CPEN/OPOSS-8 composite film are as low as 2.19 and 0.0025 at 1 MHz, respectively. Such excellent comprehensive performance, especially in low dielectric constant while obtaining ultra-low dielectric loss, will make it possible to be used as a low dielectric material. This strategy will open up a new way of thinking for the development of low dielectric materials.
It is well known that the interfacial region between the polymeric matrix and nanofiller plays a very important role in tailoring the electrical insulation properties of nanocomposite. In this study two type of polyhedral-oligomeric-silsesquioxane (POSS) are doped into epoxy (EP) to investigate the tailoring of interfacial traps that can limit the mobility of charge carriers and enhance the breakdown strength . Incorporating acryloxypropyl POSS (AP-POSS) to EP matrix improves the breakdown strength than that of pristine EP and octaphenyl POSS (OP-POSS). The molecular simulation and experiments identifies that the compatibility between EP/POSS and trap depth is dependent on the interfacial interaction energy and crosslinking density. The side groups of AP-POSS has large number of localized energy states and higher electron affinity ( E A ) that can tailor deeper traps and restrain the mobility of electrons in EP/AP-POSS. The interfacial compatibility of POSS side groups with EP tune the interfacial traps and dielectric characteristics.