Morphology of Small Diameter Barium Titanate Nanoparticle and Polyvinylidene Diflouride-Trifluoroethylene Composites

Ceramic and polymer piezoelectric materials have been widely applied to fields like energy harvesting, biomedical devices, and flexible electronics. Previous work has demonstrated that nanocomposite materials of ceramic and polymer piezo-electrics, such as barium titanate and polyvinylidene difluoride-trifluoroethylene, can be engineered to enhance the dielectric, piezoelectric, or ferroelectric properties of the resulting film. This work uses the smallest diameter nanoparticles in recent literature (less than 20 nanometers) to prevent disruption of the crystallinity of PVDF-TrFE. The material properties of the resulting composite are then observed.