pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S02 - Nanocomposites and filled Polymers
Oral Presentation
 
 

Development of piezoelectric properties in PVDF: Effect of particle concentration and stretching variables

JAHAN NUSRAT (1)*, Ajji Abdellah (1), Mighri Frej (2), Rodrigue Denis (2)

(1) CREPEC, Chemical Engineering Department, Polytechnique Montreal - Quebec - Canada, (2) CREPEC, Chemical Engineering Department, Laval University - quebec - Canada

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) has relatively high thermal stability (~120°C) with moderate piezoelectric coefficient (d33~30 pC/N), while cellular polymers such as polypropylene (PP) have higher d33 values (120-600 pC/N) with poor thermal stability (up to around 50°C) which limit their applications in high temperature transduction. Therefore, a three-phase composite was studied where organoclay was added to enhance the polar β phase and CaCO3 to introduce a cellular structure in PVDF to get a combined effect from both source of piezoelectricity with thermal stability. The samples were prepared by mixing PVDF with an organically modified nanoclay (1-12 wt%) and CaCO3 (30-40 wt%) into a Brabender mixer and subsequent hot pressing with thickness around 160 μm. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results showed that although the supplied CaCO3 was not surface modified, it still results in around 30% of β phase in PVDF in absence of nanoclay and a gradual increase was observed in β phase with increasing amount of CaCO3. This increase was further improved by adding surface modified organoclay. Although various percentages of clay were used, 2 wt% led to maximum β phase (~55%) due to better dispersion. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed the results further. A maximum of 87% β phase was found in PVDF/40 wt% CaCO3/2 wt% nanoclay sample after stretching at a ratio (R) of 4.5 at 90°C. Additionally, while the PVDF/CaCO3 composite was brittle enough to stretch beyond R=2, only 1 wt% of nanoclay in PVDF/CaCO3 made it stretchable above R=5. On the other hand, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the stretched films showed the presence of lens-shaped voids inside the film. With increasing stretching ratio and CaCO3 concentration, the percentage of porosity increased along with the length and height of the voids with homogenous distribution. A maximum 55% porosity was found for the samples studied with 40% CaCO3.