Gold/ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene nanocomposites for electrical energy storage: Enhanced recovery efficiency upon uniaxial deformation. Issue 42 (2nd June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Drakopoulos, Stavros X.; Manika, Georgia C.; Nogales, Aurora; Kim, Taeyong; Robbins, Andrew B.; Claudio, Gianfranco; Minnich, Austin J.; Ezquerra, Tiberio A.; Psarras, Georgios C.; Martin‐Fabiani, Ignacio; Ronca, Sara
• Is Part Of: Journal of applied polymer science. Volume 138:Issue 42(2021)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2021-06-02
• Subjects: dielectric properties -- energy storage -- nanocomposites -- polyolefins -- thermal properties; Polymers -- Periodicals; Polymerization -- Periodicals; 668.9
• DOI: 10.1002/app.51232
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-8995

Abstract

Abstract: The growing demand for renewable energy sources has prompted the development of dielectric materials with the ability to store and efficiently recover electrical energy. Here, we correlate the structure and thermal conductivity of uniaxially oriented disentangled ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene (dis‐UHMWPE) composites reinforced with gold nanoparticles with their electrical properties and potential application as electrical energy storage devices. Stretching increases the orientation of the polymer chains and thus the crystallinity and reduces the aggregation of gold nanoparticles while the thermal conductivity enhances significantly along the orientation axis. The structural changes driven by stretching result in two competing effects; on the one hand, the crystallinity increase reduces the permittivity of the composites and increases the resistivity, while on the other hand the recovery efficiency of oriented materials excels that of unstretched samples by up to 6 times at 5 s. Therefore, our work shows the structure–property relationship in electrical energy storage materials. Abstract : Polymer‐based nanodielectric materials were developed employing uniaxially oriented disentangled ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene (dis‐UHMWPE) and gold nanoparticles as potential electrical energy storage devices. Dielectric, structural and thermal properties were examined and a structure‐performance relationship was established varying the draw ratio. With orientation, the recovery efficiency of the samples was found to increase up to 600% at 5 seconds.