Crystal forms and ferroelectric properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/polyamide 11 blends prepared by high-shear processing

Nanostructured poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/polyamide 11 (PA11) blends have been melt-processed using a high-shear extruder. Uniaxially oriented blended films were fabricated by hot rolling to prepare ferroelectic films. The effects of rolling temperature and draw ratio on the crystal forms of both PVDF and PA 11 were investigated by means of Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD). It was shown that hot rolling in the range of 25110 degrees C results in the crystal form transformation from the nonpolar a-form into the polar P-form for PVDF. The content and orientation function of beta-crystallites are strongly dependent upon the rolling temperature and the draw ratio. The highest content of well-oriented beta-crystallites was achieved with a draw ratio of 4.0 upon rolling at 80 degrees C. At the same time, the content of the a-form of PA11 in the blend was also found to decrease by hot rolling. The ferroelectric properties (D-E hysteresis) of the oriented blended films were measured. The remanent polarization of the PVDF/ PA11 = 90/10 blend is as high as 91 mC/m(2), which is about 1.2 times higher than that of pure PVDF. The D-E hysteresis curves and the temperature dependence of the piezoelectric stress coefficients of the high-shear-processed sample suggested that the formation of nano-dispersed structures resulted in the improvement of the remanent polarization and thermal characteristics at a temperature higher than 80 degrees C. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.