The poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) based ferroelectric and relaxor materials have been proved to be good electrocaloric (EC) materials. To further enhance the EC effect in ferroelectric relaxor terpolymer poly(vinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE-CFE)), composites such as polymer-polymer blends and nanocomposites filled with inorganic nanoparticles are fabricated and investigated. It is found that the addition of small amount of filler (such as P(VDF-TrFE) or nano-ZrO2) can increase terpolymer’s crystallinity and enhance its relaxor behavior through interface couplings. The increased crystallinity and enhanced relaxor behavior together result in enhanced electrocaloric effect. The results demonstrate the promise of composite approaches in tailoring and enhancing ECE in the relaxor terpolymers.

The magnetic flux density inside a Metglas sheet is much higher than that of the applied external magnetic field due to its high magnetic permeability, which is known as the magnetic flux concentration effect. Magnetic flux concentration of Metglas as a function of its sheet aspect ratio (width/length) was investigated for Metglas/Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) laminar composites. Both the simulations and experimental results suggest that the magnetic flux concentration effect is markedly enhanced when the aspect ratio of a Metglas sheet is reduced. Consequently the magnetostriction of Metglas and the magnetoelectric (ME) voltage coefficients of the laminar composites are enhanced. The ME voltage coefficient for a laminar composite with a 1 mm wide and 30 mm long Metglas sheet (25 μm thick) is 21.46 V/cm•Oe, which is much higher than those reported earlier in similar laminar composites without making use of the flux concentration effect. The results demonstrate an effective means to significantly enhance the sensitivity of the magnetostrictive/piezoelectric composites as weak magnetic field sensors.

Poly(vinylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene chlorofluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE-CFE)) terpolymer nanorods embedded in Anodic Alumina Oxide( AAO) templates with pore sizes of 25, 70, and 200nm diameter were fabricated by extending the time of the wetting process. The instability of the wetting process induced the terpolymer infiltration into the inner space of tepolymer nanotubes, which formed mostly filled terpolymer nanorods. It was observed that all these nanorods embedded in AAO templates still possess relaxor ferroelectric behavior. The broad dielectric peak shifts progressively to higher temperatures with increasing frequency and the frequency- permittivity peak temperature fits well with the Vogel-Fulcher (V-F) relation. Moreover, the freezing temperature of the V-F relation is reduced, with the reduction of nanorod diameter. This indicates that the lateral confinement of the nanorods influences the relaxor ferroelectric behavior of the relaxor ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) terpolymer.

The field-induced phase transition driven by electric field was observed in poly(vinylidene fluoride – hexafluoropropylene) (P(VDF-HFP)) 90/10 wt% copolymers. Experimental results indicated that the electric field may remarkably affect the remanent polarization in terms of changing the D-E loop forms from double loops to single loop, starting from 68 MV/m, and completing at 216 MV/m. It was found that the remanent polarization as well as the piezoelectric constant d31 had a linear relationship with the poling electric field in above electric field range. Thus the magnetoelectric (ME) coupling coefficient ME in P(VDF-HFP)/Metglas laminates increased with the poling electric field. Moreover, the cyclic poled ME device demonstrated different peak d.c. magnetic bias field HDC on the ME - HDC curves from conventional room temperature poled ones. The peak ME coefficient obtained was 4 V/cm Oe.

We investigate aromatic polyureas which can be fabricated in the form of thin films through CVD. It was found that the polymer possesses a flat dielectric response (k∼ 4.2 and loss <1%)) to more than 200°C. The frequency-independent dielectric properties in the investigated frequency range(1kHz∼1MHz), low conductance, low dissipation factor (∼0.005), high breakdown strength (>800MV/m), high energy density (>12J/cm3) and high efficiency suggest this polymer can be a good candidate material for high temperature energy storage capacitors. Breakdown strength was analyzed with Weibull model over a broad temperature range (25°C ∼180°C). Experimental results indicate that aromatic polyurea is more like a nonpolar linear dielectric material because of its highly cross-linked structures. The experiment results further show that this polymer maintains its high performance even at high temperatures.