Pyroelectric performances of 1-3 ferroelectric composites based on barium titanate nanowires/polyvinylidene fluoride

Pyroelectric properties of 1–3 ceramic/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composites by using barium titanate nanowires (BTnws) and dopamine modified BTnws (DM-BTnws) as inclusions were firstly reported. 0–3 composites based on dopamine modified BT nanoparticles (DM-BTnps)/PVDF were also prepared for comparison. It was found that low contents of DM-BTnws in PVDF are beneficial for achieving high fraction of β-phase content based on the analysis results of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and electric displacement-electric field ( D-E ) measurements. The enhancement of β-phase content in the DM-BTnws/composited film was believed to originate from strong hydrogen bonds interactions between poly-dopamine and PVDF molecules, which induced phase transition in PVDF from α-phase into β-phase. However, although DM-BTnws improved β-phase content and, accordingly, pyroelectric coefficient of the composites, they deteriorated dielectric performances of PVDF, reducing pyroelectric performances of the composites in terms of voltage and detectivity figures of merit.