Enhanced energy density and thermostability in polyimide nanocomposites containing core-shell structured BaTiO3@SiO2 nanofibers

High energy density polymer nanocomposites with high-temperature resistance are quite desirable for film capacitors and many other power electronics. In this study, polyimide-based (PI) nanocomposite films containing the core-shell structured barium titanate@silicon dioxide (BT@SiO 2 ) nanofibers have been successfully synthesized by the solution casting method. In the BT@SiO 2 /PI nanocomposite films, the dielectric permittivity as well as the breakdown strength increase significantly. The SiO 2 shell layers with moderate dielectric permittivity could effectively mitigate the local field concentration induced by the large mismatch between the dielectric permittivity of BT and PI, which contributes to the enhancement of the breakdown strength of the PI nanocomposite films. As a result, the PI nanocomposite film filled with 3   vol% BT@SiO 2 nanofibers exhibits a maximal energy density of 2.31   J   cm −3 under the field of 346   kV/mm, which is 62% over the pristine PI (1.42   J   cm −3 at 308   kV/mm) and about 200% greater than the best commercial polymer, i.e. biaxially oriented polypropylenes (BOPP) (≈1.2   J   cm −3 ). The thermogravimetric analysis results indicate that the BT@SiO 2 /PI nanocomposite films have good thermal stability below 500   °C.