3D structure assembly in advanced functional materials is important for many areas of technology. Here, a new strategy exploits IR light‐driven bilayer polymeric composites for autonomic origami assembly of 3D structures. The bilayer sheet comprises a passive layer of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and an active layer comprising reduced graphene oxides (RGOs), thermally expanding microspheres (TEMs), and PDMS. The corresponding fabrication method is versatile and simple. Owing to the large volume expansion of the TEMs, the two layers exhibit large differences in their coefficients of thermal expansion. The RGO‐TEM‐PDMS/PDMS bilayers can deflect toward the PDMS side upon IR irradiation via the cooperative effect of the photothermal effect of the RGOs and the expansion of the TEMs, and exhibit excellent light‐driven, a large bending deformation, and rapid responsive properties. The proposed RGO‐TEM‐PDMS/PDMS composites with excellent light‐driven bending properties are demonstrated as active hinges for building 3D geometries such as bidirectionally folded columns, boxes, pyramids, and cars. The folding angle (ranging from 0° to 180°) is well‐controlled by tuning the active hinge length. Furthermore, the folded 3D architectures can permanently preserve the deformed shape without energy supply. The presented approach has potential in biomedical devices, aerospace applications, microfluidic devices, and 4D printing.
Polymer dielectric capacitors are widely used as high-power-density energy storage devices. However, their energy storage density is relatively low and they cannot meet the requirements for high temperature resistant and high energy density dielectric capacitors. In order to clarify the key factors affecting the energy storage performance and improve the energy storage density and energy efficiency synergistically, it is urgent to establish a unified model to simultaneously study the volt-ampere characteristics, space charge distribution, breakdown strength, discharged energy density, and charge-discharge efficiency of linear dielectrics. Based on the bipolar charge transport (BCT) model, we establish the unified model by a comprehensive consideration of charge injections from electrodes, carrier migration, trapping effects of exponentially distributed deep traps, and damage caused by energy gain. The BCT unified model is first used to simulate the breakdown strengths at different temperatures, the discharged energy densities, and charge-discharge efficiencies at different voltages and temperatures for biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film and SiO2 coated BOPP multilayer film. The simulation results are consistent with the experiments. It shows that carrier injection and transport are key factors to determine the conductivity, electric breakdown, and energy storage performance for linear dielectrics. Coating a layer of SiO2 on BOPP film can increase the injection barrier and reduce the charge injection, which can reduce the conductivity and Joule heat, and can alleviate the electric field distortion, resulting in the improvement of the breakdown strength. Meanwhile, reducing the space charge accumulation during the charging process by suppressing the charge injection can elevate the voltage at the beginning of discharging process, which can improve the discharged energy density and the charge-discharge efficiency of the linear dielectric capacitors.
Dielectric energy storage capacitors with excellent high temperature resistance are essential in fields such as aerospace and pulse power. However, common high‐temperature resistant polymers such as polyimide (PI) and polyether sulfone have low energy storage densities and energy efficiencies at high temperature, which are greatly limited in practical applications. The polymer nanocomposites prepared by doping modification can regulate the charge injection and transport process, and improve the high‐temperature energy storage performance. However, the quantitative relationship between charge injection and charge trapping and the energy storage performance of linear polymer nanocomposites still needs further study. An energy storage and release model considering the charge trapping effects is constructed by the authors. We simulate the high‐temperature energy storage properties of polyimide nanocomposite dielectrics (PI PNCs) with different charge injection barriers and trap parameters at 150°C. A triangular voltage is applied to the electrodes at both sides of the PI PNCs, the electric displacement‐electric field loop is simulated, and the discharged energy densities and energy efficiencies are calculated. The simulation results are consistent with the experimental results. Increasing the charge injection barrier, deep trap energy and deep trap density can effectively reduce the charge injection and the carrier mobility, thereby improving the discharged energy densities and energy efficiencies of dielectric capacitors. In the case of low charge injection barrier (1.3 eV), with the increase of deep trap energy (0.7–1.5 eV) and deep trap density (1 × 1021–1 × 1025 m−3), the discharged energy density changes from 0.20 to 1.44 Jcm−3, the energy efficiency changes from 9.0% to 99.9%, and the high‐temperature energy storage performance improves significantly. This research provides theoretical and model support for the improvement of the high‐temperature energy storage performance of nanocomposites.
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