Significantly Improved Dielectric Performance of Poly(1-butene)-Based Composite Films via Filling Polydopamine Modified Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-Coated Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Nanoparticles

Abstract

The low dielectric constant of the nonpolar polymer poly(1-butene) (PB-1) limits its application as a diaphragm element in energy storage capacitors. In this work, Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-coated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (BZT@MWCNTs) were first prepared by using the sol–gel hydrothermal method and then modified with polydopamine (PDA) via noncovalent polymerization. Finally, PB-1 matrix composite films filled with PDA-modified BZT@MWCNTs nanoparticles were fabricated through a solution-casting method. Results indicated that the PDA-modified BZT@MWCNTs had good dispersion and binding force in the PB-1 matrix. These characteristics improved the dielectric and energy storage performances of the films. Specifically, the PDA-modified 10 vol% BZT@ 0.5 vol% MWCNTs/PB-1 composite film exhibited the best dielectric performance. At 1 kHz, the dielectric constant of this film was 25.43, which was 12.7 times that of pure PB-1 films. Moreover, its dielectric loss was 0.0077. Furthermore, under the weak electric field of 210 MV·m−1, the highest energy density of the PDA-modified 10 vol% BZT@ 0.5 vol% MWCNTs/PB-1 composite film was 4.57 J·cm−3, which was over 3.5 times that of PB-1 film (≈1.3 J·cm−3 at 388 MV·m−1).