1. Low-cost Free-standing ferroelectric polymer films with high polarization produced via pressing-and-folding
- Author
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Michael J. Reece, Emiliano Bilotti, Xintong Ren, Nan Meng, Jiyue Wu, and Haixue Yan
- Subjects
chemistry.chemical_classification ,Materials science ,Metals and Alloys ,Infrared spectroscopy ,Polymer ,Crystal structure ,Ferroelectricity ,Surfaces, Coatings and Films ,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials ,chemistry ,Chemical engineering ,Copolymer ,Thermal stability ,Functional polymers ,Polarization (electrochemistry) - Abstract
Ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) shows excellent electro-activity and is promising for flexible electronic devices. However, the processing of PVDF into the favourable ferroelectric structure (β-phase) presents difficulties, while its copolymer with trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) can directly crystallize into β-phase, but shows limited thermal stability and high-cost processing. As a result, an easily implementable method, pressing-and-folding (P&F), was used to produce highly compatible blended films of PVDF and PVDF-TrFE without using any hazardous solvent or complex polymer processing equipment. Hot-pressed PVDF (molecular weight: 530 kg/mol) and PVDF-TrFE (molar ratio: 51/49) films were firstly stacked before undergoing P&F treatment. Compared to extrusion-blended films before and after P&F, the P&F stacked films showed isotropic crystalline structure of β-phase, as confirmed using X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. The ferroelectric remnant polarization of the P&F stacked films is 0.068 C/m2, surpassing pure PVDF-TrFE (0.062 C/m2) and the simulated value of remnant polarization of pure PVDF (~0.065 C/m2). The above findings promise to provide inspirations for new processing strategy on PVDF based functional polymers.
- Published
- 2022
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