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Lectures on Polymer Dielectric Materials by Prof. Lei Zhu
2020-04-23


Despite the epidemic period, students of ISAM not only study theoretical knowledge carefully online as in classrooms, but also actively participate in livestreaming academic lectures to broaden their horizons. From 8-20 April, Professor Zhu Lei from Case Western Reserve University gave us three lectures on the principles and applications of high dielectric constant and low loss materials.


Online Lecture by Professor Zhu


He starts with simple electrical polarization, introduces the requirements of automotive energy, and describes the three key conditions that the new generation of energy storage materials need to meet, i.e. high energy density, maintaining similar energy storage properties at high temperature, and less loss. It is found that polypropylene is the best energy storage material for automobiles now. When polypropylene is thin, the energy storage capacity will increase under the same volume. Examples of high permittivity of polythiourea, cellulose and water are given in the lectures to explain why these materials have high permittivity and how to design molecules improvement. 

        

In addition to energy storage materials, in view of the increasing demands for masks due to the outbreak, Professor Zhu also touches upon Melt-blown Nonwoven Fabric, the core material of masks, which mainly uses polypropylene as the main raw material. The material enjoys excellent heat insulation and sound absorption performance. At the same time, it is characterized with lots of voids, fluffy structure and wrinkle resistance. The fibers with unique capillary structure increase the number and surface of fibers per unit area. Thus, the melt blown cloth has a good ability of filtering and shielding most bacteria and viruses.     


   

ISAM students take active part in the lecture


During the online lectures, students engage in actively and ask questions after careful thinking. Professor Zhu gives answers patiently in a vivid manner and encourages the young college students to study harder. Although China can produce polypropylene, it is not able to make thin one with higher storage ability for now; moreover, the large production of masks in the country is to some extent based on imported key production lines. After the lectures, the students said that they had not only learned a lot about dielectric materials and expanded their horizons, but also were full of motivation for future learning and experiments, hoping to improve our country’s scientific and technological strength through their own efforts!






(Text/Zhong Sijing Photo/ZhongSijing)





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