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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><img width="600" height="171" style="width:6.25in;height:1.7812in" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D9BEDD.82151590" alt="Dissertation Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering"></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:red">ELUCIDATING THE STRUCTURE-PROPERTY RELATIONS OF DIELECTRIC POLYMER FILMS FOR CAPACITIVE ENERGY STORAGE AND ELECTRONICS</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Maninderjeet Singh</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">July 26, 2023; 12:00 PM</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><br>
<b>Room:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></b>Agrawal Building, AERB 222</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">ZOOM ID:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="color:black"><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88282103719?pwd=xit30ZjcAmRz0bIwxxeeutKG8s7aad.1__;!!LkSTlj0I!FKj0SURG4APYn-Q2FmIU3icJcTl4GgkwN5AhXIFktaNRc_-I6t2aqDjPpEWxbEAl8RUHobWMvyfQeZo7u3Qd8gH1IVk$"><span style="color:#0563C1">https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88282103719?pwd=xit30ZjcAmRz0bIwxxeeutKG8s7aad.1</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> </span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Meeting
ID: 882 8210 3719</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"> Passcode: w9mncu</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Committee Chair:</span></b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><br>
Alamgir Karim, PhD</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Committee Members:</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Megan Robertson, Ph.D.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>|<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></b>Jeremy Palmer, Ph.D.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>|</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Pradeep
Sharma, Ph.D.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>|<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></b></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Hadi Ghasemi, Ph.D.<span class="apple-converted-space"><b> </b></span><b>|<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></b>Devin Shaffer, Ph.D</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.5pt"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#C8102E">Abstract</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:16.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">The need for a sustainable future demands the development of high energy and power density energy storage devices. Dielectric capacitors
are used as passive components of power and electronics devices. However, these capacitors have the potential to serve as high power density energy storage devices if their energy densities can be increased significantly. The maximum energy density of the
dielectric capacitors is dictated by the permittivity and the dielectric strength of the dielectric media used in dielectric capacitors. To meet the requirements of the energy storage devices of the future, the permittivity, dielectric strength, and hence
the energy density of the polymer and polymer nanocomposites dielectric need to be increased significantly. To achieve this, the fundamental mechanisms of dielectric polarization and breakdown need to be understood in detail.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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As part of this thesis, we explore the mechanisms governing the dielectric breakdown and permittivity in polymeric dielectrics. To begin with, we test the free volume theory of dielectric breakdown by comparing the dielectric strength of cyclic polymers with
linear polymers. We observe that cyclic polymers demonstrate higher dielectric strength and hence higher energy density as compared to linear polymers. We believe that this is due to the role of chain end-associated free volume in linear polymers, which is
absent in cyclic polymers. Next, to compare the intrinsic dielectric strength of a polymer chain with the bulk films, we conducted a detailed analysis of the effect of polymer film thickness on the dielectric strength and observed that the dielectric strength
increases significantly as the film thickness decreases below a micron. We correlate these observations to the observations of polymer stiffness in a thin film regime and find a strong correlation between the stiffness and dielectric strength.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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To utilize the unique dielectric properties of 2D nanosheets in polymer nanocomposites, we developed a strategy for orienting the 2D nanosheets perpendicular to the electrical field. Due to the perpendicular orientation of the nanosheets, the nanosheets provide
a barrier to the electrical breakdown trees and as a result, the dielectric strength increases significantly. Interestingly, we observe a strong enhancement in the dielectric permittivity as well for oriented nanosheet-based nanocomposites. As a result, we
obtain an ultra-high energy density of ≈ 75 J/cm3, which is the highest reported energy density per unit mass to date. Polymer grafted nanoparticles (PGNPs) offer a unique way to alleviate the problems of nanoparticle aggregation in nanocomposite dielectrics.
As part of this thesis, we studied the effect of polymer grafting density and polymer molecular weight on the dielectric properties of PGNPs. We observe the low grafting density PGNPs show the best performance due to the intermixing of polymer chains and a
low number of voids. Overall, we believe that these results are expected to serve as guiding principles for designing high-energy density and efficient capacitors for the energy storage devices of the future.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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