Impact of structural changes on dielectric and thermal properties of vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-based terpolymer/copolymer blends

We report dielectric and thermal properties of the poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) terpolymer [P(VDF-TrFE-CFE), a member of the relaxor polymer family that exhibits fast response speeds, giant electrostriction, high electric energy density, and large electrocaloric effect] blended with the ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) copolymer, P(VDF-TrFE). Although the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) clearly reveals that both components form separate crystalline phases, at low copolymer content blends entirely exhibit a relaxorlike linear dielectric response, since the interfacial couplings to the bulky defects in the terpolymer convert the normal ferroelectric copolymer into a relaxor. On the other hand, dielectric experiments evidence that in blends with 20-50 wt% of P(VDF-TrFE) the ferroelectric and relaxor states coexist. This coexistence is confirmed by DSC results, which further reveal the influence of blending on the terpolymer crystallinity and melting point. At last, the crystallinity data appropriately explain the variation of the dielectric constant in P(VDF-TrFE-CFE)/P(VDF-TrFE) blends.