Effect of Barium Titanate Reinforcement on Tensile Strength and Dielectric Response of Electrospun Polyvinylidene Fluoride Fibers

Abstract

In this study, we used electrospinning to obtain polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fibers reinforced with barium titanate (BaTiO 3) and investigated the influence of BaTiO 3 concentration on the tensile strength and dielectric behavior of PVDF fibers. X-ray diffraction (XRD) study and infrared spectroscopy revealed that PVDF fibers filled with BaTiO 3 possessed higher fraction of ferroelectric β-crystals compared to neat PVDF fibers. Further, incorporation of 40 wt% BaTiO 3 within the fibers increased their stiffness and strength by 95 and 38%, respectively. These improvements in tensile properties of BaTiO 3 filled PVDF fibers arose from the reinforcement effect of BaTiO 3. Also, the dielectric response of the BaTiO 3 /PVDF fibers was characterized. The effective dielectric constants of PVDF fibers reinforced with BaTiO 3 were found to increase consistently with BaTiO 3 content at all frequencies. The dielectric loss of the fibers did not show any significant change for all concentrations of BaTiO 3 within the fibers.