Preparation and characterization of P(VDF-TrFE)/Al203 nanocomposite

Hybrid nanocomposites based on crystalline nanoparticles dispersed in polymer matrix has been widely studied in the past few years because of the ability of these materials to combine both properties of organic polymer and inorganic nanoparticles. The aim of this work is to tune mechanical properties of piezoelectric polymer by adding nanoparticles to the matrix. In this paper alumina nanoparticles were dispersed in the copolymer P(VDF-TrFE) which exhibits high piezoelectric coefficient after polarization under high electric field without needing stretching during the polarization process.. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) demonstrate the high rate of well-dispersed nanoparticles. with ten percent of alumina nanoparticles added in the matrix. Piezoelectric measurements indicate that P(VDF-TrFE) may be filled up to 10 wt.% of alumina while keeping high piezoelectric properties and increasing of more than 10% the acoustic wave velocity of the material, measured by Brillouin spectroscopy. This work opens a wide range of applications using nanoparticles with nonlinear optical, pyroelectric, magnetic or ferroelectric properties.