Giant energy storage and dielectric performance in all-polymer nanocomposites

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Alvarado at Penn State University for helpful discussion on theoretical calculation of dielectric constants in polymers. Q.M.Z. acknowledges the support of the Office of Naval Research under grant nos. N00014–23–1–2247, NSF DMR and Polymers Program (DMR-2413150) and the Harvey F. Brush Chair endowment in the College of Engineering of Penn State. L.L. was supported by the Office of Naval Research under grant no. N00014–23–1–2247. W.Z. was supported by the Office of Naval Research under grant nos. N00014–23–1–2247 (before September 2024 and in the summer of 2025), NSF DMR and Polymers Program (DMR-2413150) (between 1 September 2024 and 15 May 2025). W.L. and J.B. were supported by ONR grant no. N00014–23–1–2244. Supercomputing resources at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility were provided through the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. Y.G. and S.H.K. were supported by Axalta Coating Systems. R.C. acknowledges the support of the Office of Naval Research (N0001425GI00541).Author informationAuthor notesThese authors contributed equally: Li Li, Guanchun Rui, Wenyi ZhuAuthors and AffiliationsSchool of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USALi Li, Guanchun Rui, Wenyi Zhu & Q. M. ZhangDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USALi Li, Zitan Huang, Qing Wang, Zi-Kui Liu & Ralph H. ColbyDepartment of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USAYiwen Guo & Seong H. KimNational Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USASiyu WuChemistry Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USARiccardo CasaliniDepartment of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USAWenchang Lu & J. BernholcAuthorsLi LiGuanchun RuiWenyi ZhuYiwen GuoZitan HuangSiyu WuRiccardo CasaliniQing WangZi-Kui LiuRalph H. ColbySeong H. KimWenchang LuJ. BernholcQ. M. ZhangContributionsQ.M.Z. directed the research. Q.M.Z., L.L., G.R. and J.B. wrote the paper. L.L. and W.Z. prepared blend films, and carried out dielectric and charge–discharge tests. G.R., W.Z. and L.L. carried out SEM, DSC and XRD measurements. W.Z. carried out FTIR. G.R., Z.H. and R.H.C. performed the dielectric measurement using broadband dielectric spectroscopy. Y.G., L.L. and S.H.K. carried out the AFM study. L.L. performed theoretical modelling on single-unit PEI and band diagrams. W.L. and J.B. performed theoretical modelling on multi-unit PBPDA and PEI. S.W. carried out SAXS using a synchrotron. R.C. characterized the dielectric relaxations in PEI and PEI dilute nanocomposites. Q.W. contributed to dielectric and FTIR analyses. Z.-K.L. contributed to spinodal decomposition analyses. All authors participated in the discussion and edited the paper.Corresponding authorCorrespondence to Q. M. Zhang.Ethics declarations Competing interests Q.M.Z., G.R., L.L. and W.Z. have filed a provisional patent at the Pennsylvania State University. The other authors declare no competing interests. Peer review Peer review information Nature thanks Qi L