The effect of filler morphology on the dielectric performance of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) based composites

The incorporation of linear shaped fillers is thought to be able to effectively enhance the dielectric properties of polymer based composites. However, the effect of electrospinning and subsequent calcination processing on the morphology of the fillers and the dielectric performance of the polymer based composites is still unclear. Herein, we demonstrate that filler illustrating two morphological characteristics at the same time, obtained by selecting optimum electrospun precursor concentration before calcination. It is demonstrated that the final filler morphology varies from linear to intermedia (linear and droplets), to droplets with increasing tetrabutyl titanate concentration in the electrospun solution. For filler consisting both linear and droplets characteristics, a maximum energy density of 12.54 J/cm3 is reached at breakdown strength of 393 kV/mm, with a charge and discharge energy efficiency around 76%. Therefore, this could provide new insight into for the preparation of linear shape based fillers for high performance dielectric polymer composites.