Integrated 3D printing and corona poling process of PVDF piezoelectric films for pressure sensor application

Abstract

This paper presents a novel process to fabricate piezoelectric films from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer using integrated fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing and corona poling technique. Corona poling is one of many effective poling processes that has received attention to activate PVDF as a piezoelectric responsive material. The corona poling process occurs when a PVDF polymer is exposed to a high electric field created and controlled through an electrically charged needle and a grid electrode under heating environment. FDM 3D printing has seen extensive progress in fabricating thermoplastic materials and structures, including PVDF. However, post processing techniques such as poling is needed to align the dipoles in order to gain piezoelectric properties. To further simplify the piezoelectric sensors and structures fabrication process, this paper proposes an integrated 3D printing process with corona poling to fabricate piezoelectric PVDF sensors without post poling process. This proposed process, named ‘Integrated 3D Printing and Corona poling process’ (IPC), uses the 3D printer’s nozzle and heating bed as anode and cathode, respectively, to create poling electric fields in a controlled heating environment. The nozzle travels along the programmed path with fixed distance between nozzle tip and sample’s top surface. Simultaneously, the electric field between the nozzle and bottom heating pad promotes the alignment of dipole moment of PVDF molecular chains. The crystalline phase transformation and output current generated by printed samples under different electric fields in this process were characterized by a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and through fatigue load frame. It is demonstrated that piezoelectric PVDF films with enhanced β-phase percentage can be fabricated using the IPC process. In addition, mechanical properties of printed PVDF was investigated by tensile testing. It is expected to expand the use of additive manufacturing to fabricate piezoelectric PVDF-based devices for applications such as sensing and energy harvesting.

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

“…PVDF is known to also possess a piezoelectric d 31 coefficient. The authors of ref [155]. reported a significant increase in d 31 from 1.0 × 10 -3 pC/N to 4.8 × 10 -2 pC/N after poling by corona discharge at 12 kV, but increased heating temperature reduced the piezoelectricity of PVDF due to a decrease in the β-phase content.…”

Achieving the Upper Bound of Piezoelectric Response in Tunable, Wearable 3D Printed Nanocomposites

“…A variety of as‐printed piezo‐active materials with complex 3D microarchitectures and flexibilities are shown in Figure c–f. To active the piezoelectric polarizations, a 5 V µm −1 uniform electric field was applied to pole these piezoelectric nanocomposites for one hour under room temperature (Figure S2 and Section S2, Supporting Information).…”

Recent Progress in Biomimetic Additive Manufacturing Technology: From Materials to Functional Structures

“…Hence, they are suitable to be used to build biomimetic systems. Various poly(vinylidene fluoride) patterns designed for piezoelectric and pyroelectric responses were printed using the FDM process . In addition, PVDF/BaTiO 3 nanoparticle composite was printed by the inkjet 3D‐printing process to generate complex‐shaped, flexible, and lightweight piezoelectric devices ( Figure c) .…”