Giant Electrostriction Enabled by Defect-Induced Critical Phenomena in Relaxor Ferroelectric Polymers
Polymers that generate large shape changes under electric stimulation are of great interest for many applications. Recently, it was shown that converting a small amount of chlorofluoroethylene (CFE) in relaxor ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-CFE) (PVDF-TrFE-CFE) terpolymer into fluorinated alkyne (FA) creates P(VDF-TrFE-CFE-FA) tetrapolymers with giant electromechanical (EM) response at ultralow electric fields (<50 MV/m). We investigate the microscopic origin of this effect and show that converting the bulky CFE into small-size FA defects dramatically weakens the relaxor behavior. Importantly, P(VDF-TrFE-CFE-FA) tetrapolymers with near 2 mol % FA exhibit a diffused critical endpoint transition region at which the energy barriers for switching from nonpolar to polar molecular conformations become small. Consequently, a small change of the electric field induces a large electroactuation, which can enable novel applications. This work opens up a totally new approach to designing ferroelectric polymers that generate large responses at ultralow electric fields.
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Macromolecules, © 2023 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.2c01952.
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| Work Title | Giant Electrostriction Enabled by Defect-Induced Critical Phenomena in Relaxor Ferroelectric Polymers |
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| License | In Copyright (Rights Reserved) |
| Work Type | Article |
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| Publication Date | January 4, 2023 |
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| Deposited | June 30, 2025 |
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