Ultrahigh capacitive energy storage through dendritic nanopolar design
Yajing Liu, Yang Zhang, Jing Wang, Chao Yang, Hongguang Wang, Judith L. MacManus‐Driscoll, Hao Yang, Peter A. van Aken, Weiwei Li, Ce‐Wen Nan
Abstract
Electrostatic dielectric capacitors with ultrahigh power densities are sought after for advanced electronic and electrical systems owing to their ultrafast charge-discharge capability. However, low energy density resulting from low breakdown strength and suppressed polarization still remains a daunting challenge for practical applications. We propose a microstructural strategy with dendritic nanopolar (DNP) regions self-assembled into an insulator, which simultaneously enhances breakdown strength and high-field polarizability and minimizes energy loss and thus markedly improves energy storage performance and stability. For illustration, in this study, we achieved a high energy density of 215.8 joules per cubic centimeter with an efficiency of 80.7% at a high electric field of 7.4 megavolts per centimeter in a DNP structure–designed PbZr 0.53 Ti 0.47 O 3 -MgO film. The proposed strategy is generally applicable for development of high-performance dielectric microcapacitors.