Title
High-temperature polymers with record-high breakdown strength enabled by rationally designed chain-packing behavior in blends
Date Issued
07 July 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Zhang Q.
Chen X.
Zhang B.
Zhang T.
Lu W.
Chen Z.
Liu Z.
Kim S.H.
Donovan B.
Warzoha R.J.
Bernholc J.
Zhang Q.M.
The Pennsylvania State University
Publisher(s)
Cell Press
Abstract
Polymers with high dielectric breakdown strength (Eb) over a broad temperature range are vital for many applications. The presence of weak points, such as voids and free volume, severely limit the Eb of many high-temperature polymers. Here, we present a general strategy to reduce these weak points by exploiting interchain electrostatic forces in polymer blends. We show that the strong interchain electrostatic interaction between two high-temperature polymers in blends of polyimide (PI) with poly(ether imide) (PEI) yields an extended polymer chain conformation, resulting in dense chain packing and a corresponding decrease in weak spots in the polymers. This leads to a greater than 65% enhancement of Eb at room temperature and 35% enhancement at 200°C. In conjunction with results from blends of PI/poly(1,4-phenylene ether-sulfone) (PSU) and blends of PEI/PSU, we show that this previously unexplored molecular engineering strategy is efficient and straightforward in minimizing weak points in dielectric polymers.
Start page
2448
End page
2459
Volume
4
Issue
7
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería de materiales Ingeniería eléctrica, Ingeniería electrónica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85107774396
Source
Matter
ISSN of the container
25902393
Sponsor(s)
This material is based upon research supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research under award no. N00014-19-1-2028 at Penn State and N00014-19-1-2033 at NCSU . Q.Z. acknowledges the financial support by a scholarship from China Scholarship Council (no. 201806210225 ). R.J.W. and B.D. acknowledge support from the Office of Naval Research. The calculations were performed at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at ORNL, supported by DOE contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 . We thank Minren Lin for discussions.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus