Probing the local piezoelectric behavior in stretched barium titanate/poly(vinylidene fluoride) nanocomposites

Abstract The nanoscale piezoelectric and ferroelectric behavior of barium titanate/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (BT/PVDF) nanocomposite films has been investigated by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). An uniaxial stretching step was first carried out to promote the polar β crystal phase of the PVDF matrix, as confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM) analysis. Fragmentation of the original polymer crystalline structure upon drawing, as evidenced by the presence of nanometric crystalline blocks did not damage the composite film, thanks to the strong interfacial cohesion between ceramic and polymer brought by nitrodopamine functionalization of the BT inclusions. By scanning the composite surface using PFM, highly piezo-active regions were evidenced and attributed to the BT nanoparticles that could not be identified on the AFM topography images. The precise manipulation of the ferroelectric polarization states in these individual BT grains embedded into the PVDF matrix has been successfully achieved, confirmed by the local electromechanical deformation simultaneously detected. Reversible switching of the out-of-plane polarization orientation spatially confined into the particles was evidenced. The ability of the contact PFM tool to both directly visualize individual piezoelectric nanofillers dispersed into a polymer matrix and monitor the polarization states is demonstrated, thus highlighting the versatility of PFM for the advanced characterization of electroactive nanocomposites.