Preparation, structure, and property of highly filled polyamide 11/BaTiO3 piezoelectric composites prepared through solid‐state mechanochemical method

Abstract

In this article, a piezoelectric polymer composite consisting of polyamide 11 (PA11) and high loading of barium titanate (BT) particles was prepared through solid‐state shear milling method based on a pan‐type milling equipment. The structure and performance of the prepared PA11/BT composite were investigated by using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), piezoelectric test, and mechanical measurement. Experimental results showed that high loading of BT particles were homogeneously dispersed in PA11 matrix under the strong shear force field of pan‐milling. Besides, the addition of BT changed the crystallization behavior of PA11 matrix and increased its thermal stability also. The dielectric constant of the prepared PA11/BT composites dropped with increase of the frequency. However, it increased remarkably with increase of the BT volume fraction. In addition, a linear increase was found in piezoelectric strain coefficient d33 with increase of the BT volume fraction. For example, d33 could reach 1.1 pC/N and 6.6 pC/N at the BT loading of 5 and 50 vol%, respectively. The obtained composite still showed good mechanical properties even when the BT volume fraction increased to 20 vol%. POLYM. COMPOS., 40:E177–E185, 2019. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers