Abstract
The poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (P(VDF-HFP)) polymer based on electrostrictive polymers is essential in smart materials applications such as actuators, transducers, microelectromechanical systems, storage memory devices, energy harvesting, and biomedical sensors. The key factors for increasing the capability of electrostrictive materials are stronger dielectric properties and an increased electroactive β-phase and crystallinity of the material. In this work, the dielectric properties and microstructural β-phase in the P(VDF-HFP) polymer were improved by electrospinning conditions and thermal compression. The P(VDF-HFP) fibers from the single-step electrospinning process had a self-induced orientation and electrical poling which increased both the electroactive β-crystal phase and the spontaneous dipolar orientation simultaneously. Moreover, the P(VDF-HFP) fibers from the combined electrospinning and thermal compression achieved significantly enhanced dielectric properties and microstructural β-phase. Thermal compression clearly induced interfacial polarization by the accumulation of interfacial surface charges among two β-phase regions in the P(VDF-HFP) fibers. The grain boundaries of nanofibers frequently have high interfacial polarization, as they can trap charges migrating in an applied field. This work showed that the combination of electrospinning and thermal compression for electrostrictive P(VDF-HFP) polymers can potentially offer improved electrostriction behavior based on the dielectric permittivity and interfacial surface charge distributions for application in actuator devices, textile sensors, and nanogenerators.
Highlights
Electroactive polymers (EAPs) are intelligent materials that convert electrical energy to mechanical energy and vice versa
Electroactive polymers can be classified into two groups which depend on the mechanism responsible for actuation
Electronic EAPs comprise the first group, and the change in range is due to the driven electric field
Summary
Electroactive polymers (EAPs) are intelligent materials that convert electrical energy to mechanical energy and vice versa. The electrostrictive properties of P(VDF-HFP) nanofibers are innovative and worth focusing on These electrical properties are directly related to permittivity and phase transformation which strongly depend on the surface charge distributions of the material. If the electroactive polymers based on electrostrictive effects include a high dielectric constant, it will likely produce a strong polarization contribution when inducing the external electric field; this generates their large electromechanical deformation. Large electromechanical deformations based on electrostrictive behavior occurred in the high dielectric polymers under their induced polarization contributions when increasing the external electric field strength. This work set out to study the effects of combining electrospinning and thermal compression of electroactive P(VDF-HFP) nanofibers on their microstructure, crystallinity, β-phase, thermal properties, mechanical properties, electrical and dielectric properties, and, their electrostrictive properties with a view to apply them in actuators, textile sensors, nanogenerators, and nanoelectronic devices
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