Formulation, printing, and poling method for piezoelectric films based on PVDF-TrFE

Polyvinylidene fluoride- trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) has been utilized widely for pressure sensing, healthcare monitoring, and energy harvesting. In order to integrate piezoelectric elements into flexible thin film electronics, researchers have studied depositing PVDF-TrFE via printing methods. Screen printing, in particular, has been utilized by several groups but printing methodology and characterization procedures have varied significantly between works. In this work, a simple, low-cost, flexible method is described. The resulting films are characterized for their piezoelectric character and temperature tolerance. The printed films have a piezoelectric coefficient comparable to previous work (26.24 pC/N) and demonstrate no meaningful degradation in piezoelectric character up to 110C.