Structural and dielectric properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride)–based terpolymer/copolymer blends developed on aluminum foil

Abstract

We report structural, caloric, and dielectric properties in the blends of relaxor poly(vinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene–chlorofluoroethylene) terpolymer with small amount of poly(vinylidene fluoride–chlorotrifluoroethylene) copolymer, developed on aluminum surface. X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry results indicate that the copolymer additive disturbs the crystallizing process of the terpolymer. Consequently, relatively high values of the dielectric constant of ≈80, detected in terpolymer films around room temperature, decrease to ≈60 in blends. We show that addition of the copolymer does not influence the relaxor dielectric dynamics of the terpolymer and we explain the detected dielectric response by calculations that take into account the fact that in these heterogeneous systems two similar dynamic processes superimpose in the same temperature range, i.e., relaxor dynamics in the crystalline regions and a glassy transition in the amorphous matrix.