ACHIEVING SYNERGISTIC IMPROVEMENT IN DIELECTRIC AND ELECTROCALORIC EFFECT OF ALL-ORGANIC FERROELECTRIC POLYMER NANOCOMPOSITES

Electrocaloric effect based refrigeration is an innovative zero global warming potential (GWP) thermal management technology. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its copolymers/terpolymers possess advantageous properties such as lightweight, flexibility and easy processability, and have found extensive applications in sensing, transducing and energy applications. In this study, we found that an optimal loading of low-permittivity organic small molecular 3,3-diphenyl acrylonitrile (DPA) into the P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) terpolymer matrices substantially improves the polarization efficiency and the dielectric characteristics. The blend intermolecular interface with large dielectric difference enabling the polar phases within the polymer to adopt a state of reduced energy barrier for electric-field-induced switching. As a result, the ferroelectric polymer nanocomposites modified by DPA molecular exhibits over 150% entropy change enhancement over the based terpolymer under the same field strength. The present work leverages the interfacial coupling mechanism as a strategy to develop high-performance electrocaloric composites for solid-state refrigeration applications.