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1. Confocal microscopy observations of electrical pre-breakdown of bi-layer elastomer dielectrics

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eml.2021.101473  

   Charoen-Rajapark, Pavida; Clarke, David R. (November 2021, Extreme Mechanics Letters)

   At high electric fields, the electrical energy stored in a soft elastomer dielectric can be comparable to the mechanical deformation energy it produces. This has led to the development of a class of electrically controlled, large strain dielectric elastomer actuators for soft robotics and energy harvesting devices. At large electric fields, the electro-mechanically induced deformation can lead to pseudo-periodic surface morphological instabilities which then grow with increasing field into stable pre-breakdown defects prior to final, irreversible electrical breakdown. Under these extremes of combined large electrical and mechanical deformations, the morphological evolution of the prebreakdown defects has not hitherto been reported. In contrast to the filamentary breakdown of much stiffer dielectrics, fluorescence confocal microscopy reveals an array of defects that evolve through a complex, reversible series of morphologies, transitioning from axi-symmetric ‘‘pits’’ to ‘‘crack-like’’ shapes that can ‘‘twist’’ and deflect, and finally open to form an array of holes. The observations suggest that the transitions, from axi-symmetric pits to flat, slit-like defects and then to an array of holes, are geometric instabilities. The implications for using a soft elastomer layer to increase the dielectric breakdown of a stiffer dielectric are discussed. 

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2. Enhancing corona resistance in Kapton with self-assembled two-dimensional montmorillonite nanocoatings

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D2MA00205A  

   Ren, Ming; Wang, Yifei; Liu, Jingjing; Wu, Chao; Hou, Zaili; Konstantinou, Antigoni; Zhou, Jierui; Nguyen, Hiep; Davis-Amendola, Kerry; Sun, Luyi; et al (May 2022, Materials Advances)

   Polymer dielectrics have been widely used in electrical and electronic systems for capacitive energy storage and electrical insulation. However, emerging applications such as electric vehicles and hybrid electric aircraft demand improved polymer dielectrics for operation not only under high electric fields and high temperatures, but also extreme conditions, for example, low pressures at high altitudes, with largely increased likelihood of electrical partial discharges. To meet these stringent requirements of grand electrifications for payload efficiency, polymers with enhanced discharge resistance are highly desired. Here, we present a surface-engineering approach for Kapton® coated with self-assembled two-dimensional montmorillonite nanosheets. By suppressing the magnitude of the high-field partial discharges, this nanocoating endows polymers with improved discharge resistance, with satisfactory discharge endurance life of 200 hours at a high electric field of 46 kV mm −1 while maintaining the surface morphology of the polymer. Moreover, the MMT nanocoating can also improve the thermal stability of Kapton®, with significantly suppressed temperature coefficients for both the dielectric constant and dielectric loss over a wide temperature range from 25 to 205 °C. This work provides a practical method of surface nanocoating to explore high-discharge-resistant polymers for harsh condition electrification. 

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3. Ultrahigh–energy density lead-free dielectric films via polymorphic nanodomain design

   https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw8109  

   Pan, Hao; Li, Fei; Liu, Yao; Zhang, Qinghua; Wang, Meng; Lan, Shun; Zheng, Yunpeng; Ma, Jing; Gu, Lin; Shen, Yang; et al (August 2019, Science)

   Dielectric capacitors with ultrahigh power densities are fundamental energy storage components in electrical and electronic systems. However, a long-standing challenge is improving their energy densities. We report dielectrics with ultrahigh energy densities designed with polymorphic nanodomains. Guided by phase-field simulations, we conceived and synthesized lead-free BiFeO 3 -BaTiO 3 -SrTiO 3 solid-solution films to realize the coexistence of rhombohedral and tetragonal nanodomains embedded in a cubic matrix. We obtained minimized hysteresis while maintaining high polarization and achieved a high energy density of 112 joules per cubic centimeter with a high energy efficiency of ~80%. This approach should be generalizable for designing high-performance dielectrics and other functional materials that benefit from nanoscale domain structure manipulation. 

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4. Space Charge Induced Flexoelectric Transducers for Energy Harvesting

   https://doi.org/10.1109/PowerMEMS56853.2022.10007549  

   Kazemi, Arash; Peters, Travis; Trolier-McKinstry, Susan; Roundy, Shad (December 2022, 2022 21st International Conference on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS))

   Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is widely used in energy harvesting because of its excellent material properties. However, as the material contains lead, there are significant environmental concerns with its production and use. Flexoelectricity refers to the coupling between strain gradient and electric polarization that exists, in principle, in all dielectric materials and would allow for energy harvesting without using piezoelectric materials. However, the effect is very weak in most materials. Promisingly, it has recently been shown that space charge polarized materials (i.e., semiconducting materials with insulating barrier layers) can exhibit enhanced flexoelectricity. This space charge induced flexoelectric effect opens up the possibility of a non-toxic replacement for PZT in energy harvesting applications. In this paper we investigate the use of doped silicon with hafnium oxide insulating layers as flexoelectric transducers that could replace PZT in many applications including energy harvesting. Specifically, we experimentally demonstrate flexoelectricity in a bending beam and show an effective flexoelectric coefficient of 4.9 uC/F. Finally, we develop and demonstrate a finite element model for flexoelectricity. 

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5. Polarization near dislocation cores in SrTiO3 single crystals: The role of flexoelectricity

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0202453  

   Cheng, Xiaoxing; Wang, Bo; Chen, Long-Qing (March 2024, Applied Physics Letters)

   Spontaneous polarization as large as ∼28 μC/cm2 was recently observed around the dislocation cores in non-polar SrTiO3 bulk crystals, and its origin was attributed to the flexoelectric effect, i.e., polarization induced by strain gradients. However, the roles of flexoelectricity, relative to other electromechanical contributions, and the nature of dislocations, i.e., edge vs screw dislocations in the induced polarization, are not well understood. In this work, we study the role of flexoelectricity in inducing polarization around three types of dislocation cores in SrTiO3: b=a(100) edge dislocation, b=a(110) edge dislocation, and b=a(010) screw dislocation, where b is the Burgers vector. For the edge dislocations, polarization can be induced by electrostriction alone, while flexoelectricity is essential for stabilizing the symmetric polarization pattern. The shear component of the flexoelectric tensor has a dominant effect on the magnitude and spatial distribution of the flexoelectric polarization. In contrast, no polarization is induced around the b=a(010) screw dislocation through either electrostriction or flexoelectricity. Our findings provide an in-depth understanding of the role of flexoelectricity in inducing polarization around dislocation cores and offer insights into the defect engineering of dielectric/ferroelectric materials. 

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