Piezoelectric response polymer crystallinity

Examples of polymers that have a piezoactive response are poled poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) (151) and its copolymers with trifluo-roethylene co(VDF-TrFE) (152), and the family of odd nylons (153) (see Piezoelectric Polymers). These are partially crystalline materials in which the crystalline regions have a permanent electric dipole moment. These polymers show ferroelectric switching behavior indicating that after poling they have a net... 

PVDF copolymers have been investigated for their piezo properties and for uses in various applications such as sensors. An example of a PVDF copolymer is polyvinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene [P(VDF-TrFE)], which is a ferroelectric, crystalline polar polymer that exhibits inherent piezoelectric and pyroelectric responses with low acoustic impedance. Such properties provide an optimistic approach towards the use of these polymers for various applications in the near future. Higashihata et al. (1981) compared the piezoelectric craistants of PVDF and P(VDF-TrFE) and observed that much larger values were obtained for P(VDF-TrFE) under the same polarizing conditions. The special interest in this copolymer is also due to the evidence reported by Furukawa et al. (1981) that the PVDF-TrFe copolymer can be annealed to 100% crystallinity, as opposed to 50% in PVDF. Other copolymers have also been explored to determine an enhanced piezo effect (Poulsen and Ducharme, 2010). 

Elastomeric LCP networks with the potential to show piezoelectric behavior were described by Zentel and co-workers [109, 110, 125, 773]. More recently, Meier and Finkelmann [774, 775] created piezoelectric cholesteric elastomers and described some of their properties. Polymers [776] and networks [126,777] with nonlinear optical responses were recently synthesized. Some of these polymers are liquid crystalline [776], We see no reason why mesogenic monomers and NLO responsive monomers may not soon be combined to form permanently crosslinked NLO LCP networks. 

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