Effect of filler size and concentration on the structure and properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/BaTiO3 nanocomposites

Abstract

The effect of filler size and content in the thermal, mechanical and electrical response of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/ BaTiO 3 nanocomposites has been investigated. Dielectric constant increases significantly with increasing filler content and decreasing filler size. Space charge effects at the interface between BaTiO 3 and PVDF strongly influence the dielectric response. The electroactive -phase of PVDF is nucleated by the presence of the ceramic filler, the effect being strongly dependent on filler size and independent on filler content. This filler/matrix interaction is also responsible for the variations observed in the activation energy of the thermal degradation of the polymer. Smaller particles lead to larger relative contact areas and are responsible for the main variations observed in the thermal, mechanical and electrical properties of the composites.

Energy harvesting performance of piezoelectric electrospun polymer fibers and polymer/ceramic composites

“…The inclusion of different filler contents also does not affect the polymer polar phase, as has been demonstrated in previous works. [29] Piezoelectric properties are being used for sensors and actuators as well as for energy harvesting applications, taking advantage of nanoscale materials such as nanowires, nanorods and nanofibers from PZT, BaTiO3 or ZnO [15,16,22].…”

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

“…For this, nano and micro crystal composites were fabricated separately by dispersing KNN at nanometer and micron scales in the PVDF matrix. It is known in the literature that the volume fraction of filler plays a crucial role in obtaining high dielectric constant and large piezoelectric response [18,[41][42][43][44]. Therefore, we have varied the volume fraction of nano and micro crystalline KNN powder (as the case may be) in PVDF matrix in order to optimize the volume fraction that is required to obtain improved physical properties.…”

Effect of silane coupling agent on the morphology, structure, and properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene)/BaTiO3 composites

“…While most of the research on VDF based polymer composites historically focused on their dielectric and electromechanical properties, recently more attention has also been dedicated to the understanding of their processing and their morphological, structural, 4 thermal and mechanical properties [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. The fabrication of VDF polymer based composites poses challenges due to the difficulty of homogeneously dispersing the inorganic filler into the fluoropolymer matrix and to the poor matrix-filler adhesion.…”

“…As matrix-filler interfacial interactions largely determine the final structure and properties of these composites, increasing effort has been devoted to the understanding and tailoring of the matrix-filler interface [9,20,24,25]. The surface functionality of modified fillers was found to influence the crystalline structure of VDF polymer matrices.…”