Scalable Dual In Situ Synthesis of Polyester Nanocomposites for High-Energy Storage.

Incorporating ultralow loading of nanoparticles into polymers has realized increases in dielectric constant and breakdown strength for excellent energy storage. However, there are still a series of tough issues to be dealt with, such as organic solvent uses, which face enormous challenges in scalable preparation. Here, a new strategy of dual in situ synthesis is proposed, namely polymerization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) synchronizes with growth of calcium borate nanoparticles, making polyester nanocomposites from monomers directly. Importantly, this route is free of organic solvents and surface modification of nanoparticles, which is readily accessible to scalable synthesis of polyester nanocomposites. Meanwhile, uniform dispersion of as ultralow as 0.1 wt% nanoparticles and intense bonding at interfaces have been observed. Furthermore, the PET-based nanocomposite displays obvious increases in both dielectric constant and breakdown strength as compared to the neat PET. Its maximum discharged energy density reaches 15 J cm-3 at 690 MV m-1 and power density attains 218 MW cm-3 under 150 Ω resistance at 300 MV m-1, which is far superior to the current dielectric polymers that can be produced at large scales. This work presents a scalable, safe, low-cost, and environment-friendly route toward polymer nanocomposites with superior capacitive performance.

Effect of Mn doping on electroforming and threshold voltages of bipolar resistive switching in Al/Mn : NiO/ITO.

We investigated the bipolar resistive switching (BRS) properties of Mn-doped NiO thin films by sol-gel spin-coating. As the Mn doping concentration increased, lattice constant, grain size and band gap were found to decrease simultaneously. Moreover, the electroforming voltages and threshold voltages were gradually reduced. It can be ascribed to the increase in the density of grain boundaries, and the defects caused by doping Mn and lower formation energy of Mn-O. They would be helpful for the formation of oxygen vacancies and conductive filaments. It is worth mentioning that excellent BRS behaviors can be obtained at a low Mn-doped concentration including enlarged ON/OFF ratio, good uniformity and stability. Compared with other samples, the 1% Mn-doped NiO showed the highest ON/OFF ratio (>106), stable endurance of >100 cycles and a retention time of >104 s. The mechanism should be determined by bulk properties rather than the dual-oxygen reservoir structure. These results indicate that appropriate Mn doping can be applied to improve the BRS characteristics of NiO thin films, and provide stable, low-power-consumption memory devices.

Abnormal coexistence of unipolar, bipolar, and threshold resistive switching in an Al/NiO/ITO structure.

This paper reports an abnormal coexistence of different resistive switching behaviors including unipolar (URS), bipolar (BRS), and threshold switching (TRS) in an Al/NiO/indium tin oxide (ITO) structure fabricated by chemical solution deposition. The switching behaviors have been strongly dependent on compliance current (CC) and switching processes. It shows reproducible URS and BRS after electroforming with low and high CC of 1 and 3 mA, respectively, which is contrary to previous reports. Furthermore, in the case of high-forming CC, TRS is observed after several switching cycles with a low-switching CC. Analysis of current-voltage relationship demonstrates that Poole-Frenkel conduction controlled by localized traps should be responsible for the resistance switching. The unique behaviors can be dominated by Joule heating filament mechanism in the dual-oxygen reservoir structure composed of Al/NiO interfacial layer and ITO. The tunable switching properties can render it flexible for device applications.