This review summarizes the current state of polymer composites used as dielectric materials for energy storage. The particular focus is on materials: polymers serving as the matrix, inorganic fillers used to increase the effective dielectric constant, and various recent investigations of functionalization of metal oxide fillers to improve compatibility with polymers. We review the recent literature focused on the dielectric characterization of composites, specifically the measurement of dielectric permittivity and breakdown field strength. Special attention is given to the analysis of the energy density of polymer composite materials and how the functionalization of the inorganic filler affects the energy density of polymer composite dielectric materials.

It is well accepted that adding nanoparticles (NPs) to polymer melts can result in significant property improvements. Here we focus on the causes of mechanical reinforcement and present rheological measurements on favourably interacting mixtures of spherical silica NPs and poly(2-vinylpyridine), complemented by several dynamic and structural probes. While the system dynamics are polymer-like with increased friction for low silica loadings, they turn network-like when the mean face-to-face separation between NPs becomes smaller than the entanglement tube diameter. Gel-like dynamics with a Williams–Landel–Ferry temperature dependence then result. This dependence turns particle dominated, that is, Arrhenius-like, when the silica loading increases to ∼31 vol%, namely, when the average nearest distance between NP faces becomes comparable to the polymer's Kuhn length. Our results demonstrate that the flow properties of nanocomposites are complex and can be tuned via changes in filler loading, that is, the character of polymer bridges which ‘tie' NPs together into a network.

Nanometer-sized particles that are well dispersed in a polymer melt, presumably due to strongly favorable particle−polymer interactions, can form fractal structures via polymer bridging, leading ultimately to a nanoparticle (NP) network analogous to a colloidal gel. The linear viscoelastic response of polymer nanocomposites can be quantitatively predicted by a parameter-free model in which the stress is a simple sum of contributions from the polymer matrix and the fractal NP structure linked by bridging polymer chains. The NP contribution is modeled using critical percolation, while the polymer part is enhanced by the presence of particles, owing to hydrodynamic interactions. The phase diagram at the right shows that small NPs are needed to achieve the stronger reinforcement from glassy bridges at reasonable particle loadings.

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The impact of spherical nanoparticles (NPs) on the segmental dynamics of polymer melts is investigated. The addition of NPs broadens the segmental dynamics with effects of both particle size and loading. Interfacial bound layer thickness is calculated by the difference in magnitude of the segmental dynamics of pure polymer and nanocomposites. These theoretical models suggest that the bound layer thickness in the case of strongly adsorbing polymer matrices may increase with particle size.

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