Flexible electronics have gained eminent importance in recent years due to their high mechanical strength and resistance to environmental conditions, along with their effective energy storage and energy generating abilities. In this work, graphene/ceramic/polymer based flexible dielectric nanocomposites have been prepared and their dielectric properties were characterized. The composite was formulated by combining graphene with rutile and anatase titania, and polyvinylidene fluoride in different weight ratios to achieve optimized dielectric properties and flexibility. After preparation, composites were characterized for their morphologies, structures, functional groups, thermal stability and dielectric characterizations by using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis and impedance spectroscopy. Dielectric results showed that prepared flexible composite exhibited dielectric constant of 70.4 with minor leakage current (tanδ) i.e., 0.39 at 100 Hz. These results were further confirmed by calculating alternating current (AC) conductivity and electric modulus which ensured that prepared material is efficient dielectric material which may be employed in electronic industry for development of next generation flexible energy storage devices.
Higher concentrations of ceramic fillers induce brittleness in the ceramic/polymer hybrids which restrict their applications to limited fields especially when such hybrids are prepared for their use as dielectrics. We have synthesized and characterized different BaTiO3-polypyrrole (PPy) composites by changing the concentration of BaTiO3 from 1% by weight of PPy taken to 5 wt % to explore its effect on the dielectric parameters of the final product and found that the BaTiO3-polypyrrole composite with weight ratio of 0.05:1 exhibited highest dielectric constant, lowest dielectric loss and thermally most stable. All the composites were prepared using in-situ polymerization of pyrrole in an aqueous dispersion of low content of BaTiO3 in the presence of small amount of Hydrochloric acid. These composites were characterized for their microstructure and crystallinity by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) while thermal stability by thermo gravimetric (TGA) analysis. An impedance analyser (LCR meter) was utilized to investigate the dielectric parameters. FT-IR data confirmed the presence of the two phases and their interaction, inferred from the shifting of normal PPy peaks. The data obtained from XRD confirmed the presence of crystallites of 2.8 to 5 nm with dominant crystallinity of the filler, TGA analysis (25 to 600 °C) confirmed the higher thermal stability induced on successive addition of the filler into the prepared composites as compared to that of pure PPy in a wide temperature range which is unusual for such a low % age addition of the filler. The SEM analysis together with XRD results reveal that the successive introduction of BaTiO3 particles produced crystallites of 2 to 5 nm size which bonded together and changed the hemispherical shaped larger grains of the matrix to regular shaped smaller grains. The dielectric constant of the composites was enhanced with filler contents from 178 to 522 at 1 MHz for 1 wt % and 5 wt % BaTiO3 respectively. It was concluded that the introduction of BaTiO3 into the polymer matrix with this new procedure has greatly affected the polymerization process, thermal stability, morphology and dielectric properties of the host matrix and has resulted in a novel series of the composites which may have broad applications.
To address the limitations of piezoelectric polymers which have a low dielectric constant andto improve their dielectric and ferroelectric efficiency for energy storage applications, we designed and characterized a new hybrid composite that contains polyvinylidene fluoride as a dielectric polymer matrix combined with graphene platelets as a conductive and barium titanite as ceramic ferroelectric fillers. Different graphene/barium titanate/polyvinylidene fluoride nanocomposite films were synthesized by changing the concentration of graphene and barium titanate to explore the impact of each component and their potential synergetic effect on dielectric and ferroelectric properties of the composite. Results showed that with an increase in the barium titanate fraction, dielectric efficiency ofthe nanocomposite was improved. Among all synthesized nanocomposite films, graphene/barium titanate/polyvinylidene fluoride nanocomposite in the weight ratio of 0.15:0.5:1 exhibited thehighest dielectric constant of 199 at 40 Hz, i.e., 15 fold greater than that of neat polyvinylidene fluoride film at the same frequency, and possessed a low loss tangent of 0.6. However, AC conductivity and ferroelectric properties of graphene/barium titanate/polyvinylidene fluoride nanocomposite films were enhanced with an increase in the graphene weight fraction. Graphene/barium titanate/polyvinylidene fluoride nanocomposite films with a weight ratio of 0.2:0.1:1 possessed a high AC conductivity of 1.2 × 10−4 S/m at 40 Hz. While remanent polarization, coercive field, and loop area of the same sample were 0.9 μC/cm2, 9.78 kV/cm, and 24.5 μC/cm2·V, respectively. Our results showed that a combination of graphene and ferroelectric ceramic additives are an excellent approach to significantly advance the performance of dielectric and ferroelectric properties of piezoelectric polymers for broad applications including energy storage.
This study is concerned with the development of some synthetic polymers, copolymers and their sulfonated derivatives as adsorbents. The effectiveness of these adsorbents in removing Cr(III) from aqueous solution was evaluated by batch technique. The influence of different experimental parameters on removal process such as solution pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, Cr(III) concentration and temperature were evaluated. Adsorption equilibrium was achieved in 20 to 30 min. at pH > 5. The Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin adsorption isotherms were used to elucidate the observed sorption phenomena. The maximum Cr(III)37.8 mg/gram of PS(polystyrene) and 37.2 mg/g of SAN (styrene/acrylonitrile copolymer) was removed as evaluated from Langmuir isotherm while the heat of sorption was in the range 0.21–7.65 kJ/mol as evaluated from Temkin isotherm. It can be concluded that PS developed in this study exhibited considerable adsorption potential for application in removal of Cr(III) from aqueous media as compared to its copolymers and other derivatives used in this study.
The violet-to-blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters were created employing several substituents based on 5,5-dimethyl-5,10-dihydropyrido [2,3-b][1,8] naphthyridine-diphenylsulphone (DMDHPN-DPS) called 1a via “CH/N” and “H/CN” substitutions at the diphenylsulphone acceptor (DPS) moiety. The parent compound 1a was selected from our former work after extensive research employing “CH/N” substitution on Dimethyl-acridine (DMAC) donor moiety. There is a little overlap amid the highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMOs) and lowest un-occupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs) due to the distribution of HOMOs and LUMOs primarily on the DMDHPN donor and the DPS acceptor moieties, respectively. It resulted in a narrower energy gap (∆EST) between the lowest singlet (S1) and triplet (T1) excited state. In nearly all derivatives, the steric hindrance results in a larger torsional angle (85°–98°) between the plane of the DMDHPN and the DPS moieties. The predicted ΔEST values of the compounds with “H/CN” substitution were lower than those of the comparable “CH/N” substituents, demonstrating the superiority of the reversible inter-system crossing (RISC) from the T1 → S1 state. All derivatives have emission wavelengths (λem) in the range of 357–449 nm. The LUMO → HOMO transition energies in the S1 states are lowered by the presence of –CN groups or –N = atoms at the ortho or meta sites of a DPS acceptor unit, causing the λem values to red-shift. Furthermore, the λem showed a greater red-shift as there were more–CN groups or –N = atoms. Three of the derivatives named 1b, 1g, and 1h, emit violet (394 nm, 399 nm, and 398 nm, respectively), while two others, 1f and 1i, emit blue shade (449 nm each) with reasonable emission intensity peak demonstrating that these derivatives are effective violet-to-blue TADF nominees. The lower ΔEST value for derivative 1i (0.01 eV) with λem values of 449 nm make this molecule the finest choice for blue TADF emitter amongst all the studied derivatives. We believe our research might lead to the development of more proficient blue TADF-OLEDs in the future.