Energy storage in polymer films with high dielectric constant fillers

Increasing the energy density (dielectric constant) of a polymer film through filling with high dielectric constant nanoparticles has obvious appeal but, as shown in this paper, is difficult if spheres are employed as the fillers. This paper documents the dielectric constant, energy storage, and, most importantly, energy density which is likely to be achieved through such an approach, based on large scale 3-D field computations of spherical filler in a polymer matrix. In addition, the dielectric constant of the composite as a function of volume fraction (filling ratio) is compared with various mixing rules, none of which proves to be very good