Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) appears to be a promising polymeric material, exhibiting enormous potential specifically in electroactive devices because of its unique dielectric properties arising from specific crystalline phases. In order to explore and expand the potential of PVDF as an efficient electroactive material, the amount of its electroactive β-phase has been reported to be improved by incorporation of various materials, among which silica nanoparticles is one. In this work, incorporation of silica nanoparticles of variable porosity, shape, size, and surface area in PVDF has been carried out in order to understand the effect of these variables on the transformation of stable, dominant α-phase into the desired β-phase, expected to bring about enhancement in dielectric constant. Such silica/PVDF polymer nanocomposite films were prepared by solution casting method. Increase in porosity of silica nanoparticles was found to increase the dielectric constant of the films, while transformation of their shape from spherical to cylindrical also increased the dielectric properties due to effective long-range ordering of the PVDF polymer chains. Size of the nanoparticles was found to play the most dominant role in dielectric enhancement, with the smaller sized non-porous and porous nanoparticles inducing higher dielectric properties than the bigger mesoporous spherical and cylindrical nanoparticles. The findings of this study will expectantly lead to the way of effectively tuning and achieving even higher dielectric properties of PVDF in future by strategically tuning the filler properties.

Porous silica induced phase transformation in poly(vinylidene fluoride) for dielectric enhancement

Where thousands of chemistry professionals meet to share ideas and advance scientific and technical knowledge. Spring 2023 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch at the end of March.

ACS Spring 2023

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.