Trapping Ions to Enhance High-Field Energy Harvesting Performance by Filling Polar Macromolecular Dielectrics

In the quest for sustainable and renewable energy sources, researchers and engineers have explored innovative technologies to harvest energy from various environmental sources. Dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) with high energy harvesting performance have been proven to be promising energy collectors, but achieving a high dielectric constant (ε') and low electrical conductivity (EC) under high electric fields of dielectric elastomer (DE) simultaneously is a struggle, which poses significant challenges. In this study, high-content carboxyl group-grafted liquid polybutadiene (HCPB) is synthesized and then adopted as an organic dielectric filler to blend and cocross-link with a butadiene rubber (BR) matrix to prepare DE composites with high energy harvesting performance. The introduction of carboxyl groups enhances polarization while trapping free Al³⁺ in the matrix, which revolutionarily achieves a significant increase in ε' under extremely low EC. Ultimately, the contradiction between increased ε' and decreased EC under high electric fields is reconciled, resulting in a 30 HCPB/BR composite with high energy density (w = 91.9 mJ/cm³) and fine power conversion efficiency (PCE = 24.1%). This advancement paves the way for the development of HCPB/BR composite-based DEGs with enhanced ε' and energy harvesting performance.