Why ferroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride is special

Abstract

Ferroelectric polymers entail a number of constraints, which together limit the useful compositional variations. These constraints include the following: a stable molecular dipole moment, compact crystal structure, conformational flexibility, and minimal steric hindrance. They are well satisfied by the prototype ferroelectric polymer, polyvinylidene fluoride, and yet almost every other conceivable molecular structure is limited by comparison.

Fabrication of diisopropylammonium bromide aligned microcrystals with in-plane uniaxial polarization

“…Copolymers of VDF with trifluoroethylene (TrFE), P(VDF-TrFE), for example, have become the ferroelectric polymer of choice for applications, due in part to the variety of ways they can be prepared in bulk using inexpensive solution-processing methods [22] and can be formed into high-performance thin films and nanostructures [21,[23][24][25][26][27]. The ferroelectric polymers, however, have not proven particularly amenable to synthetic modification for optimizing ferroelectric properties in the way the ferroelectric oxides have [28]. Polymers are also limited to polymorphous sample structures, and are therefore limited in terms of performance, due to the difficulty in obtaining long-range crystalline order [29,30].…”

Reversible Switching of Icing Properties on Pyroelectric Polyvenylidene Fluoride Thin Film Coatings

“…As a consequence the crystallization on a negatively charged surface is suppressed in comparison to a similar positively charged surface. Pyroelectric response is a possible response of dielectric materials with oriented dipoles towards temperature change and the pyroelectric effect is observed on ceramic [26] as well as polymeric materials [27]. A widely-used pyroelectric polymer is polyvinylidene fluoride.…”

Hydroxyl-decorated graphene systems as candidates for organic metal-free ferroelectrics, multiferroics, and high-performance proton battery cathode materials

“…The first ferroelectric crystal, Rochelle salt, which was discovered in 1920 [2], is an organic ferroelectric material containing organic tartrate ion. At present, the study of ferroelectricity in organic solids has been limited to some well-known polymer ferroelectrics [3] like polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) [4][5][6][7][8][9][10], or a few low-molecular-mass compounds like thiourea [11], tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) complexes with p-bromanil (tetrabromo-p-benzoquinone) [12] and pchloranil (tetrachloro-p-benzoquinone) [13], croconic acid [14] and so on. Multiferroicity, i.e., coexistence of magnetism and ferroelectricity, is even more desirable for constructing multifunctional devices [15,16] where electrical polarization can be controlled by applied magnetic fields and magnetization by applied voltage.…”