Pyroelectric coefficient, piezoelectric PVDF

While PVDF has piezoelectric properties similar to those of piezoelectric ceramic materials, the pyroelectric coefficient is too low to be useful except for specialized applications where the main... 

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. 

As mentioned earlier, it is misleading to describe advances in the properties of polymers without also describing how such polymers are processed into thin films or crystals. Moreover, many of the physical properties of polymers are inextricably linked to their structural and orientational order. An excellent example of this is the piezoelectric and pyroelectric coefficients of the well-known polymer, polyvinylidene difluoride (PVdF)... 

Table 7.17 Material coefficients of PVDF polymer thin film (Nalwa 1995). Elastic constants and compliances, piezoelectric, pyroelectric and thermal expansion coefficients are listed.

Local field effects are not only inqiortant to the magnitude of the remanent polarization. they also contribute significantly to the magnitude piezoelectric coefficients. The ferroelectric phase transition cannot be observed in PVDF because the transition temperature b above the melting point of the polymer. -17S C. It can be observed in PVDF which has been specially synthesized to contain many defeeb and in copolymers with trifluoroethyleite and tetrafluoroethylene. Studies of the copoly-mers suggest that the transition temperature b about 19S C in standard PVDF. 

The material properties appearing in Eqs. (6)-(9) are defined by the partial derivatives of the dependent variables (P, c, e) with respect to the independent variables. At this point, to maintain consistency with the literature on the P-phase of PVDF, we label c as the 1 axis, a as the 2 axis, and, b as the 3 axis. In evaluating the piezoelectric and pyroelectric responses we consider changes in polarization along the 3 axis only polarization along the 1 and 2 axes remains zero, by symmetry, for all the cases considered here. The direct piezoelectric strain 03 , pC/N) and stress (gaj, C/iiE) coefficients are defined in Eqs. (10) and (11),... 

Although piezoelectric properties such as relative permittivity and piezoelectric coefficients change with the temperature, the total effect for the calibration of PZT sensors far below the Curie temperature is very small. However, PVDF foils show a significant temperature dependence of the pyroelectric properties in addition to their temperature depending piezoelectric features. Thus PVDF sensors are quite temperature sensitive, and in general, an appropriate temperature compensation is necessary. This behaviour, however, can be improved by special forming and spatial distribution of the PVDF sensors [100]. 

Ferroelectric polymer materials like PVDF or its derivatives are mentioned, since they behave as ferroelectric materials (see Fig. 2.2) - They have crystallinity and the crystals show polymorphism by controlling the preparation method. Much detailed work has been carried out on piezoelectric and/or pyroelectric properties, together with their characteristics as electroactive actuators. These materials have long been mentioned as typical electroactive polymers. Through these materials, it is considered that the strain induced in the polymer materials is not large. The electrostrictive coefficient is known to be small for polymers. These are non-ionic polymers and the induced strain originates from the reorientation or the deformation of polarized crystallites in the solid materials. 

Thbit 1 Piezoelectric, Pyroelectric, and Tbcnnal Frpanetoo Coefficients and Mechanical Propetika of PVDF TUn Films... 

The occurrence of piezoelectric behaviour in LB films has been known for some time [57,58], and a 30 X-type layer LB film of (37) was found to give opposite signs of the piezoelectric strain coefficients d i and d [59], the latter having a value of 1.5 pC which is approximately an order of magnitude lower than that of the well-documented polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF). Values for 31 of 0.023 and 0.170 pC N have also been obtained for alternate-layer structures of 22-tricosenoic acid with docosylamine, and a ruthenium complex with docosanoic acid respectively [60]. As the use of pyroelectric materials in detector applications requires that the materials possess only low levels of piezoelectricity (high levels introduce problems of microphony), this suggests that the former materials would be better suited for pyroelectric detector applications, while the latter system would be more appropriate for piezoelectric-based applications. 

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