Tunable In Situ 3D-Printed PVDF-TrFE Piezoelectric Arrays

• Main Authors: Alec Ikei, James Wissman, Kaushik Sampath, Gregory Yesner, Syed N. Qadri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-07-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: PVDF; PVDF-TrFE; 3D printing; smart materials; sensors
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/15/5032

In the functional 3D-printing field, poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) has been shown to be a more promising choice of material over polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), due to its ability to be poled to a high level of piezoelectric performance without a large mechanical strain ratio. In this work, a novel presentation of in situ 3D printing and poling of PVDF-TrFE is shown with a d<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mn>33</mn></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> performance of up to 18 pC N<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msup><mrow></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></semantics></math></inline-formula>, more than an order of magnitude larger than previously reported in situ poled polymer piezoelectrics. This finding paves the way forward for pressure sensors with much higher sensitivity and accuracy. In addition, the ability of in situ pole sensors to demonstrate different performance levels is shown in a fully 3D-printed five-element sensor array, accelerating and increasing the design space for complex sensing arrays. The in situ poled sample performance was compared to the performance of samples prepared through an ex situ corona poling process.