In this study, we used electrospinning to obtain polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fibers reinforced with barium titanate (BaTiO3) and investigated the influence of BaTiO3 concentration on the tensile strength and dielectric behavior of PVDF fibers. X-ray diffraction (XRD) study and infrared spectroscopy revealed that PVDF fibers filled with BaTiO3 possessed higher fraction of ferroelectric β-crystals compared to neat PVDF fibers. Further, incorporation of 40 wt% BaTiO3 within the fibers increased their stiffness and strength by 95 and 38%, respectively. These improvements in tensile properties of BaTiO3 filled PVDF fibers arose from the reinforcement effect of BaTiO3. Also, the dielectric response of the BaTiO3/PVDF fibers was characterized. The effective dielectric constants of PVDF fibers reinforced with BaTiO3 were found to increase consistently with BaTiO3 content at all frequencies. The dielectric loss of the fibers did not show any significant change for all concentrations of BaTiO3 within the fibers.
Part of the book: Novel Aspects of Nanofibers