Dielectric capacitors have attracted ever-increasing interest in recent decades for numerous applications in modern electronic and electrical power systems due to their fast charge/discharge speed and high energy density. Novel dielectric materials are highly sought for these capacitive applications. Polymer dielectrics are attractive as they can offer high dielectric strength, low dielectric loss, and light weight, however, a few challenges still exist. For examples, the state-of-the-art polymer dielectric, biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP), has low dielectric permittivity, while polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) has high dielectric loss. These hurdles require developing next-generation polymers as dielectric materials with new chemistry and unique architectures that are tunable in compositions, flexible in mechanical properties and stable at high temperature. In this short review, we begin with some theoretical considerations for the rational design of dielectric polymers with high performance. In the guidance of these theoretical considerations, we review recent progress toward dielectric polymers based on two major approaches, in terms of macromolecular architectures, namely main-chain and side-chain dielectric polymers, and various chemistry and compositions are discussed within each approach.

介电电容器由于其快速的充电/放电速度和高的能量密度而在现代电子和电力系统中的许多应用中引起了近几十年来的日益增长的兴趣。对于这些电容性应用，人们迫切需要新型介电材料。聚合物电介质具有很高的介电强度，低的介电损耗和重量轻，因此具有吸引力，但是仍然存在一些挑战。例如，最新的聚合物电介质双轴取向聚丙烯（BOPP）具有低介电常数，而聚偏二氟乙烯（PVDF）具有高介电损耗。这些障碍要求开发下一代聚合物作为介电材料，并采用新的化学方法和可调整成分的独特结构，机械性能灵活，高温下稳定。在这篇简短的评论中，我们从合理设计高性能介电聚合物的一些理论考虑入手。在这些理论考虑的指导下，我们根据高分子结构即主链和侧链介电聚合物这两种主要方法，对基于介电聚合物的最新进展进行了综述，并在每种方法中讨论了各种化学性质和组成。