(569c) Electroactive Crystalline Phase Formation in Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Nanocomposite Films

Fluoropolymers are widely utilized in various industries because of their inherent heat resistance, chemical inertness, and hydrophobicity. Despite these materials being mature and market applications well established, this is by no means a stagnant subject. For example, the interest in vinylidene fluoride(VDF)-based polymers has been steadily increased because these polymers can be implemented in high-tech applications such as energy storage and energy harvesting devices. This is largely due to the characteristics of piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity and ferroelectricity of VDF-based polymers. Poly(vinylidene fluoride)(PVDF) is known to have at least five crystalline structures. The most commonly found are a, b, and g-phases. Among them, polar b- and g-phases are the cause of the interesting electrical characteristics mentioned above. Therefore, many studies have been carried out to control the crystalline structure of PVDF. Whereas stretching and poling of melt blown film is a standard method, different strategies also have been developed to obtain the electroactive phases of PVDF. Recently, studies on the PVDF nanocomposite containing various inorganic nanoparticles have been reported by means of introducing polar crystalline phases, but the debate about how the electroactive phase is nucleated still continues. In this presentation, I will introduce some experimental results showing how the surface properties of nanoparticles affect the crystalline phase formation of PVDF.