DNA-Based Hybrids for Energy Storage Applications

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DNA-Based Hybrids for Energy Storage Applications Donna M. Joycea, Narayanan Venkata,b, Fahima Ouchena,b, Kristi M. Singha,c, Steven R. Smitha,b, and James G. Grotea a Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH 45433 b University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH 45469 c UES Inc., Dayton, OH 45432

ABSTRACT Polymeric materials are widely used in power generation and energy storage applications. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) biopolymer-based hybrids have been found to display interesting electrical characteristics, such as a relatively high dielectric constant, good resistivity and dielectric breakdown behavior, and are promising as insulating dielectrics for capacitor applications. This research describes the processing, test structure design, and electrical characterization of DNA-sol-gel hybrids for energy storage applications. Keywords: DNA, biopolymer, bio-dielectrics, dielectric constant, sol-gel, DNA-CTMA. INTRODUCTION A suitably designed hybrid dielectric encompassing both polymer and ceramic components can, in principle, combine the advantages of a high dielectric strength as well as an enhanced relative permittivity to potentially function in high energy density capacitor systems.1-3 The utilization of a biopolymer material such as DNA as a dielectric has some natural advantages. Bio-capacitors are inherently capable of reducing environmental footprint since they stem from ‘green’ materials. DNA is low cost, lightweight, and is amenable to a variety of low temperature film fabrication processes including drop casting, spin-coating, and inkjet printing. Besides their processability, DNA films have also been reported to have a dielectric constant of ~8.0,4 which is higher than that of most of the synthetic polymers known. The structural complexity and selfassembly property inherent and unique to DNA also allow it to be heavily doped by both organic and inorganic dopants via specific binding modes. Recent literature reports5,6 suggest that DNA, in the form of a complex such as DNA-CTMA, can be blended with alcohol-based inorganic sol-gel materials to provide hybrid thin film dielectrics with a relatively high dielectric constant (~ 7.0) as well as a high dielectric strength (≥ 800 V/µm), pointing to their potential utilization in high energy density capacitors. By virtue of their relatively high dielectric constant relative to many organic polymers, the DNA hybrid dielectric can also serve as a more efficient gate dielectric to help reduce drive voltage for the operational enhancement of field effect transistors (FETs) in electronic applications.4,7 A systematic investigation of the DNA-CTMA/sol-gel dielectric system for energy storage applications is described in this study. Single film test structures were designed and devices

fabricated for dielectric testing. Breakdown voltage measurements were performed to determine electric field strength and potential energy density. Temperature-dependent dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor as well as the frequency-dependent beh

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