Development of self-polarized PVDF films on carbon fabrics for sensing applications

Abstract

The contribution of piezoelectric materials in electrical and electronic devices is increasing day by day owing to their promising unique characteristics. Here, polyvinylidene fluoride (P VDF) films were deposited on carbon fabric through solution cast technique. The evolution of ferroelectric β-phase in the films is controlled by the composition of the casting solution, number of layers of the films and drying conditions. The deposited films were characterized by FT IR, XRD, DSC, optical microscopy and open circuit voltage and closed-circuit current. The use of a hydrated salt in the casting solution, higher number of layers and drying in an oven at 50 °C results in higher content of β-phase. The observations depict that using this simple technique of deposition the output voltage and output current can be tailored as 95 V to 296 V and 1.5 μA to 5 μA for variable force.