Relaxor ferroelectric behavior and structural evaluation in electron-irradiated P (vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) copolymer blends

The effect of high-energy electron-irradiation on binary ferroelectric blends of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) 56/44 and 80/20 mol% has been studied in a broad dose ranging from 0 to 120 Mrad. It was found that the blends transformed from a normal ferroelectric to relaxor ferroelectric, obeying the Vogel-Fulcher law, after a proper electron dose by dielectric constants and loss measurements. X-ray diffraction shows significant changes in the ferroelectric-to-paraelectric phase transition behavior from all-trans to trans-gauche conformation after irradiation. In differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermograms, the Curie temperature and melting temperature decrease with the dose, indicating that there exists a strong lattice coupling between the two copolymers. C 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc