Nanofiller induced electroactive phase formation in solution derived poly(vinylidene fluoride) polymer composites

Electroactive self-standing flexible composite poly(vinylidene fluoride) ( PVDF) films were prepared by simple solution casting method. In this study we investigated the effect of two different nanofillers, namely GNPs and ZnO NRs and the use of five different hexahydrate salts (HS) on the nucleation of the electroactive phase in the solution derived PVDF films. FT-IR analysis revealed that both HS dissolution and nanofillers dispersion in the PVDF matrix induced the electroactive phase formation without any electrical poling ascribed to their strong surface interaction with the polymeric chains. Moreover, we observed that the electroactive phase is still present when HS dissolution is combined with nanofiller dispersion, thus opening the route to the possibility of tailoring the operating frequency of the resulting electroactive material. This versatile electroactive phase induction by the nanofillers is a prominent way for production of large-area flexible piezoelectric films.