Enhancement of dielectric energy density in the poly(vinylidene fluoride)-based terpolymer/copolymer blends

This paper investigates dielectric properties of the blends of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) terpolymer and poly(vinylidene fluoride-chlorotrifluoroethylene) copolymer. The high field (>50 MV/m) polarization response of the blends with a small amount of copolymer (5 and 10 wt % copolymer) is higher than that of the neat terpolymer due to the interface contribution. At the same time the breakdown field was also greatly improved by mixing a small amount of the copolymer with the terpolymer. Consequently, a higher energy density of about 11.5 J/cm(3) is obtained in these blends in contrast to about 9 J/cm(3) in the terpolymer. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3002277]