Pyroelectric applications, ferroelectric polymers

A number of other polymeric solids have also been the subject of much interest because of their special properties, such as polymers with high photoconductive efficiencies, polymers having nonlinear optical properties, and polymers with piezoelectric, pyroelectric and ferroelectric properties. Many of these polymeric materials offer significant potential advantages over the traditional materials used for the same application, and in some cases applications not possible by other means have been achieved. 

This area does not address the wide variety of devices that feature ferroelectric polymers as detectors based on their inherent pyroelectric effect. Instead, the focus of this chapter is to present recent (within the last decade) poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) transducer applications that feature their fenoelectiic effect as the preferred active material property. 

The rest of this chapter is structured as follows. Section 5.2 gives a brief historical overview together with a description of the synthesis, structure and preparation of ferroelectric polymers. Section 5.3 defines the properties required to evaluate these materials, and includes typical values and brief accounts of the measurement methods. Section 5.4 details the applications of ferroelectric polymers, covering sound transducers, biomedical, pyroelectric and mechanical applications. Conclusions are briefly described in section 5,5. 

Electret materials are meanwhile used in a large number of modern high-tech applications including microphones, acoustic sensors, transducers, radiation and pollution dosimeters, power generators, filters, and many more. Additionally, electret technology is of great interest in the field of biomaterials, for instance in callus formation and wound healing [10, 11], When used in cellular or in multilayer sandwich structures, polymer electrets can exhibit piezoelectricity. Such materials are ferroelectrets, as they show typical features of ferroelectric materials such as piezo-and pyroelectricity [12-17],... 

Pyro- and Piezoelectric Properties The electric field application on a ferroelectric nanoceramic/polymer composite creates a macroscopic polarization in the sample, responsible for the piezo- and pyroelectricity of the composite. It is possible to induce ferroelectric behavior in an inert matrix [Huang et al., 2004] or to improve the piezo-and pyroelectricity of polymers. Lam and Chan [2005] studied the influence of lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT) particles on the ferroelectric properties of a PVDF-TrFE matrix. The piezoelectric and pyroelectric coefficients were measured in the electrical field direction. The Curie point of PVDF-TrFE and PMN-PT is around 105 and 120°C, respectively. Different polarization procedures are possible. As the signs of piezoelectric coefficients of ceramic and copolymer are opposite, the poling conditions modify the piezoelectric properties of the sample. In all cases, the increase in the longitudinal piezoelectric strain coefficient, 33, with ceramic phase poled) at < / = 0.4, the piezoelectric coefficient increases up to 15 pC/N. The decrease in da for parallel polarization is due primarily to the increase in piezoelectric activity of the ceramic phase with the volume fraction of PMN-PT. The maximum piezoelectric coefficient was obtained for antiparallel polarization, and at < / = 0.4 of PMN-PT, it reached 30pC/N. 

Ferroelectric crystals (especially oxides in the form of ceramics) are important basic materials for technological applications in capacitors and in piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and optical devices. In many cases their nonlinear characteristics turn out to be very useful, for example in optical second-harmonic generators and other nonlinear optical devices. In recent decades, ceramic thin-film ferroelectrics have been utilized intensively as parts of memory devices. Liquid crystal and polymer ferroelectrics are utilized in the broad field of fast displays in electronic equipment. 

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). 

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