Ferroelectric and relaxor ferroelectric activities of the P(VDF-TrFE) and its blends synthesized by (SiMe3)3SiH hydrogenation process

A group of ferroelectric polyvinylidene-trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)) with 6, 9, 20, and 50 mol% trifluoroethylene (TrFE) is synthesized by an hydrogenation process using a new catalyst (SiMe3)(3)SiH from polyvinylidene-chlorotrifluoroethylene. We find the crystalline region of hydrogenated P(VDF-TrFE) 80/20 mol% is beta crystal phase predominant, which is responsible to the favorable ferroelectric property. Moreover, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) blending is used to fabricate the ferroelectric and relaxor ferroelectric properties of P(VDF-TrFE) 80/20 mol%. Interestingly, with the increasing of PVDF content, PVDF/P(VDF-TrFE) has three successional conversion stages of ferroelectricity, antiferroelectricity, and relaxor ferroelectricity, respectively, indicating that the beta crystal domains in hydrogenated P(VDF-TrFE) films gradually reduces with the introduction of PVDF. Otherwise, after an unidirectional stretching process, the ferroelectricity of relaxor PVDF/P(VDF-TrFE) blend film is reformed. As such, the maximum polarization (P-m) and remnant polarization (P-r) of stretched PVDF/P(VDF-TrFE) with 90 wt% PVDF reached to 13.8 and 7.5 mu C/cm(2) under 200 MV/m, respectively. Thus, the three methods proposed in this work including fabricating configuration by changing TrFE content, physical blending by introduction of PVDF, and simple stretching can modify the ferroelectric performances of this hydrogenated P(VDF-TrFE), which also provides a reference of application of this polymer on ferroelectric areas.