Hierarchical Interfaces Induce High-Dielectric –Permittivity of Nanocomposites Containing TiO2@BaTiO3 Nanofibers: Phase-Field Simulation and in-situ Observation of Electrical Breakdown by TEM

Interface issues are common and crucial in nanocomposites or nanohybrid systems since the interface area is enormous on the nanoscale. In the 0-3 polymer nanocomposites, in which nano-inclusions (0-dimension) are embedded in 3-dimensionally connected polymer matrix, enhanced dielectric permittivity could be induced by the interfacial polarization at the interfaces between the nano-inclusions and polymer matrix. In this contribution, we propose and demonstrate that the topological structure of the interface plays an equally important role as the area of interface in determining the dielectric polarization of polymer nanocomposites. TiO2 nanofibers embedded with BaTiO3 nanoparticles are prepared via electrospinning and then fused with polyvinyl difluoride (PVDF) into polymer nanocomposite films. Modulation of hierarchical interfaces are thus achieved in these nanocomposites. The confinement of these additional interfaces inside the TiO2 nanofibers Page 1 of 24 Nanoscale N an os ca le A cc ep te d M an us cr ip t