Abstract
In this study, we investigated the deposition kinetics of polyvinylidene fluoride copolymerized with trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)) particles on stainless steel substrates during the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process. The effect of applied voltage and deposition time on the structure and ferroelectric property of the P(VDF-TrFE) films was studied in detail. A method of repeated EPD and heat treatment above melting point were employed to fabricate crack-free P(VDF-TrFE) thick films. This method enabled us to fabricate P(VDF-TrFE) films with variable thicknesses. The morphology of the obtained films was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the formation of β-phase was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. P(VDF-TrFE) films prepared with various thicknesses showed remnant polarization (Pr) of around 4 μC/cm2. To demonstrate the applicability of our processing recipe to complex structures, we fabricated a spring-type energy harvester by depositing P(VDF-TrFE) films on stainless steel springs using EPD process. Our preliminary results show that an electrophoretic deposition can be applied to produce high-quality P(VDF-TrFE) films on planar as well as three-dimensional (3-D) substrates.
Highlights
We investigated the deposition kinetics of polyvinylidene fluoride copolymerized with trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)) particles on stainless steel substrates during the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process
The morphology of the obtained films was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the formation of β-phase was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy
We investigated the kinetics of P(VDF-TrFE) particles on stainless steel substrates and fabricated crack-free P(VDF-TrFE) thick films with thicknesses in the range of 21.4–34.8 μm by means of repeated EPD and heat treatment
Summary
We investigated the deposition kinetics of polyvinylidene fluoride copolymerized with trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)) particles on stainless steel substrates during the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process. EPD has attracted much attention because of its versatility, easy process, and need for a simple equipment, such as a power supply[10,11] This method has been used to deposit metal[12], polymer[13], ceramic[14], and biomaterial[15] particles in the range from nanometers to a few micrometers on conducting substrates or even conducting substrates covered with a dielectric material[16]. We investigated the kinetics of P(VDF-TrFE) particles on stainless steel substrates and fabricated crack-free P(VDF-TrFE) thick films with thicknesses in the range of 21.4–34.8 μm by means of repeated EPD and heat treatment. We demonstrated that the P(VDF-TrFE) films could be coated on a complex structured substrate using repeated EPD and heat treatment
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