To meet the urgent demands for capacitive energy storage with high temperature resistance and high power density in new energy vehicles, power electronics, aerospace, and wide-bandgap semiconductor power devices, our research group has long devoted efforts to polymer composite dielectrics and corresponding energy storage devices. This study targets key challenges of polymer dielectrics under elevated temperatures and high electric fields, including increased leakage conduction loss, reduced breakdown strength and degraded charge-discharge efficiency.

Adopting a multi-scale collaborative design philosophy covering filler design, interface engineering, structural optimization and charge regulation, we focus on breaking the bottleneck that dielectric constant, breakdown field strength and high-temperature energy storage efficiency cannot be improved simultaneously. By designing high-k ferroelectric nanofillers with uniform particle size, enhanced polarization and mitigated local electric field distortion are achieved. We also develop two-dimensional wide-bandgap nanosheets, core-shell coating and multi-level heterogeneous interface engineering to construct highly insulating barrier interfaces and deep trap networks, which suppress carrier injection, migration and breakdown propagation under high temperature and high electric fields. Furthermore, strategies including multilayer structure design, localized filler distribution and all-organic molecular semiconductor blending are adopted to regulate space charge distribution, interfacial polarization and local electric field, so as to realize the simultaneous improvement of energy storage density, efficiency and high-temperature stability.

This work establishes the correlation mechanisms linking micro-nano filler structures, interfacial electronic structures, carrier transport behaviors and macroscopic energy storage performance. The research outcomes lay a material and theoretical foundation for the domestic application of advanced polymer dielectrics in high-temperature film capacitors, flexible energy storage devices and high-reliability power electronic systems.

Publications:

1、Yang Liu, Zhenjun Shao, Jin Qian, Tiezhu Guo, Jian Bao, Diming Xu, Weichen Zhao, Zhentao Wang, Zilin Huang, Jiajia Ren, Jinnan Liu, Ziyang Liu, Jiwei Zhai*, Yao Zhou*, Zenghui Liu*, Tao Zhou*, Guiwei Yan, Jinzhan Su, Wenyuan Liu, Wenfeng Liu*, Jordi Jacas, Joan Ramon Morante Lleonart, Andreu Cabot, and Di Zhou,* Multilevel Heterointerface Engineering Breaks the Trap-Barrier Trade-Off in High-Energy-Density Polymer Dielectrics, Advanced Materials, 2026, 38[16], e17624.

2、Tao Liu, Yang Liu, Jin Qian, Jiwei Zhai,* Tao Zhou, Yao Zhou, Di-Ming Xu, Wenfeng Liu, and Di Zhou*, Enhanced Energy Storage Performance Through Electron-Hole Pair Formation in Polymer Matrices Doped with P-Type Molecular Semiconductor, Advanced Functional Materials, 2026, 36[6], e16202.

3、Yan Guo, Weichen Zhao, Da Li, Jinnan Liu, Jin Qian, Lixia Pang,* Tao Zhou, Wenfeng Liu,* Zhaobo Liu, Houbing Huang,* Jiwei Zhai, and Di Zhou,* Ultra-high Capacitive Energy Storage Density at 150 °C Achieved in Polyetherimide Composite Films by Filler and Structure Design, Advanced Materials, 2025, 37 [6], 2415652.

4、Ying Han, Xiao Li*, Yang Liu, Jin Qian, Jianjun Liu, Diming Xu, Weichen Zhao, Haowei Zhou, Jiwei Zhai*, Tao Zhou*, Yao Zhou, Wenfeng Liu*, Di Zhou*, Superior dielectric energy storage performance at elevated temperatures enabled by precisely tailored MgO NPLs distribution in tri-layer polymer composites, Nano Energy, 2026, 147, 111587.

5、Tao Liu, Jianjun Liu, Yang Liu, Jin Qian, Jiwei Zhai, Yao Zhou*, Tao Zhou, Gui-Wei Yan, Di-Ming Xu, Kar Ban Tan*, Wenfeng Liu, Di Zhou,*Interlayer-directed multilevel trap engineering for enhanced energy storage in PET dielectric films, Nano Energy, 2026, 147, 111613.