Enabling high dielectric response and low electrical leakage in polymer/mesoporous-silica@CdTe-quantum-dots nanocomposites by excitonic dipoles and pore-canal restriction

Abstract High dielectric response and low leakage conduction are desired in polymer/ceramic composite dielectrics for capacitive energy storage. Rational structural design of hybrid ceramic filler can lead to a balance between high dielectric constant and insulation in composites. In this study, high dielectric constant and breakdown strength were achieved in fluoropolymer/mesoporous silica@CdTe nanocomposite films. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were employed owing to their high insulation and complex electron-leakage channel. CdTe quantum dots combined with pore-canal inwalls of MSNs were employed because of their internal exciton polarization and MSNs/CdTe interface polarization. Compared with polymer/MSNs composites, polymer/MSNs@CdTe composites exhibited remarkably improved dielectric constant, slightly increased dielectric loss, and slightly reduced breakdown strength. High dielectric constant of ternary composites was ascribed to exciton orientation inside CdTe and interfacial dipole orientation between MSNs and CdTe. High breakdown strength was attributed to high insulation in MSNs and long-range electron transfer inside MSNs@CdTe. An optimal ternary composite with 12 wt% MSNs@CdTe showed a high dielectric constant of ~56, low dielectric loss of ~0.19 at 100 Hz, and high breakdown strength of ~308 MV m-1. The results of this study can provide insights for enabling large-scale fabrication of modern composite dielectrics based on mesoporous particles@semi-conductive quantum dots fillers.