New electrostriction materials based on organic polymers: A review

The nature of very high electrostriction strains in modified fluorine-containing polymer ferroelectrics is considered. The main modification method is the irradiation of vinylidene fluoride (VDF) copolymers with trifluoroethylene (TrFE) by electrons with energies of several MeV. Such treatment leads to the transition of the ferroelectric phase to the relaxor state and paraelectric phase. These structural changes are caused by the formation of new functional groups in PVDF chains at radiolysis. The effect of the structure on the electrostriction strains is considered. It is shown that the increase in the electrostriction strain after irradiation is related to the increase in the amorphous phase fraction. This increased strain (all other factors being equal) in uniaxial films, in comparison with isotropic ones, indicates that the field of the anisotropic amorphous phase (mesomorphic state) regions plays an important role in the reaction. An analysis of the experimental data shows that the structural changes in the field (leading to electrostriction strains) are controlled to a great extent by the features of cooperative (segmental) mobility of amorphous phase chains.