Piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of ceramic nanoparticles-based nanostructured PVDF/PVC blend nanocomposites

Abstract

BaZrO3 and BaTiO3 nanofillers were incorporated in pristine PVDF and pristine PVC blend matrix separately to prepare blend nanocomposites using the solution casting technique. The mass ratios of PVDF/PVC/BaTiO3 were chosen to be 80/16/4. The structure morphology of nanocomposites was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction. The FTIR, AFM, XRD and pyroelectric results indicate the strong interaction between the nanofiller and PVDF/PVC blend matrix. The nanocomposite exhibits a high pyroelectric coefficient due to proper dispersion of nanofillers. The maximum piezoelectric coefficients (d33) were 39, 88, 79.72, 112pC N−1 for pristine PVC, pristine PVDF, PVDF/PVC/BaZrO3 and PVDF/PVC/BaTiO3 blend nanocomposites, respectively. The remnant polarization of blend nanocomposites is also measured by P–E loop. P–E loop shows that the polarization of the blend nanocomposites increases under influence of nanofiller. The pyroelectric coefficient for PVDF/PVC/nanofiller blend nanocomposite is very sensitive in the temperature range of 30 to 180 °C and greater than PVC (i.e. 351 µC m−2 K−1 > 15 µC m−2 K−1).