Effect of Ag nanoparticle concentration on the electrical and ferroelectric properties of Ag/P(VDF-TrFE) composite films

Abstract

We investigated the effect of the Ag nanoparticles on the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of Ag/poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) composite films. We found that the remanent polarization and direct piezoelectric coefficient increased up to 12.14 μC/cm2 and 20.23 pC/N when the Ag concentration increased up to 0.005 volume percent (v%) and decreased down to 9.38 μC/cm2 and 13.45 pC/N when it increased up to 0.01 v%. Further increase in Ag concentration resulted in precipitation of Ag phase and significant leakage current that hindered any meaningful measurement of the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. 46% increase of the remanent polarization value and 27% increase of the direct piezoelectric coefficient were observed in the film with the 0.005 v% of the Ag nanoparticles added without significant changes to the crystalline structure confirmed by both X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) experiments. These enhancements of both the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties are attributed to the increase in the effective electric field induced by the reduction in the effective volume of P(VDF-TrFE) that results in more aligned dipoles.

Effect of nano- and micron-sized K0.5Na0.5NbO3 fillers on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of PVDF composites

“…The reason for PVDF-KNN nanocrystal composites (below 100 nm) not exhibiting piezoelectric properties is owing to the fact that these contain only a few domain walls, thus contribution from domain wall motion through poling is difficult due to internal clamping by space charge layer at the interface (between the matrix and the KNN nanocrystallites). Besides, the nanocrystallites have a tendency to agglomerate, which may give rise to an additional domain wall pinning effect at the grain boundaries of nanocrystals within the agglomerates [66]. Also, the size of the agglomerates increases with an increase in the volume fraction of nanocrystallites of KNN in the PVDF matrix.…”

Hybrid lead-free polymer-based nanocomposites with improved piezoelectric response for biomedical energy-harvesting applications: A review

“…The application of high voltages during the electrospinning process essentially leads to the alignment of the electric dipoles present in the PVDF solution, with the degree of alignment being proportional to the magnitude of the applied electric field [26]. Various electrospun hybrid composites for energy-harvesting applications based on PVDF or PVDF-TrFE nanofibre mats, including graphene nanosheets and BT NPs [27], (Na0.5,K0.5)NbO 3 (NKN) NPs embedded in PVDF-TrFE [12], BT NPs embedded in PVDF-TrFE [28,29], PVDF-ZnO nanofibre mats [26], PVDF/KNN NRs [30], K0.5Na0.5NbO 3 -BT/PVDF [31], Ag/PVDF-TrFE [32], and PVDF-TrFE-BT with rGO contents of 0.1%, 0.3%, 0.5%, and 0.7% [33] have been reported. Structurally robust, reproducibly scalable, substrate-independent, and large-area NGs have been successfully fabricated utilizing the near-field electrospinning direct-write technique to massively align the piezoelectric PVDF nanofibres (NFs) on flexible substrates [34].…”

P(VDF-TrFE) Film on PDMS Substrate for Energy Harvesting Applications

“…Once the composition and thickness had been optimized, we performed structural characterization using the XRD technique on the prepared P(VDF-TrFE) film, and the results are shown in Figure 3a. We found that the orientation planes (110) and (200) shown in the XRD spectra are related to the polar β-phase, since the diffraction peak position is shown at a 2θ value of 19.7 • [26,27]. FTIR measurements were also carried out to further confirm the presence of β-phase P(VDF-TrFE).…”