Nanocomposites induced by two-dimensional titanium carbide nanosheets for highly efficient energy storage

Surface group-rich titanium carbide nanosheets (TCNSs) were successfully fabricated by simply etching Ti₃AlC₂ powders and used as dielectric fillers to promote the dielectric and energy storage performances of poly (vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP)-based composites. The PVDF-HFP/TCNS composites realize a high dielectric constant and low dielectric loss of 16.3 and 0.034 at 10² Hz, respectively. Importantly, a high energy storage density (U_e) of 0.367 J cm⁻³ at 900 kV cm⁻¹ and a high energy storage efficiency (η ≥ 78.9%) at a TCNS content of only 0.5 wt% are obtained, which indicates that incorporating TCNS is an efficient route in enhancing U_e while maintaining a high level η of the PVDF-HFP-based composites. According to detailed characterization results, a mechanism related to the reduction of lamellar crystals in the PVDF-HFP matrix is suggested. The above mechanism restricts the movement of polymer chains near the filler-matrix interface and is proposed to be responsible for the outstanding dielectric and energy storage performances. Consequently, this work provides a simple and effective method for fabricating highly efficient energy storage nanocomposites.