Characterizations and Significantly Enhanced Dielectric Properties of PVDF Polymer Nanocomposites by Incorporating Gold Nanoparticles Deposited on BaTiO3 Nanoparticles

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanocomposites were fabricated by incorporating BaTiO3 nanoparticles (particle size of ~100 nm, nBT), which were deposited by Au nanoparticles (nAu) with an average particle size of 17.8 ± 4.0 nm using a modified Turkevich method. Systematic characterizations on the synthesized nAu-nBT hybrid nanoparticles and nAu-nBT/PVDF nanocomposites with different contents of a filler were performed. The formation of nAu-nBT hybrid nanoparticles was confirmed with the calculated nAu:nBT ratio of 0.5:99.5 wt.%. The homogeneous dispersion of nAu and nBT in the PVDF polymer was obtained due to the interaction between the negative surface charge of the nAu-nBT filler (compared to that of the nBT) and polar β-PVDF phase, which was confirmed by the zeta potential measurement and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. A significantly increased dielectric permittivity (ε′ ~ 120 at 103 Hz) with a slight temperature-dependent of <±15% ranging from −20 to 140 °C was obtained. Notably, a low loss tangent (tanδ < 0.08) was obtained even at a high temperature of 140 °C. Therefore, incorporating a PVDF polymer with nAu-nBT hybrid nanoparticles is an attractive method to improve the dielectric properties of a PVDF polymer for dielectrics applications.

Effect of UV/Ozone treatment on surface hydrophilicity and humidity sensing properties of PVDF-BaTiO3 composite films

In this research work, we have studied the impact of UV/ozone treatment on the hydrophilicity of the PVDF-BaTiO3 nanocomposite film. We have prepared the nanocomposite solution by mixing PVDF (2.5 wt% kept constant) and BaTiO3 nanoparticles (0.25 wt%, 0.5 wt%, and 1 wt% varied concentration). The spin coating technique has been used to deposit the nanocomposite film on the Interdigitated ITO electrode.

Effect of Hydrothermal Treatment and Doping on the Microstructural Features of Sol-Gel Derived BaTiO3 Nanoparticles

Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) is one of the most promising lead-free ferroelectric materials for the development of piezoelectric nanocomposites for nanogenerators and sensors. The miniaturization of electronic devices is pushing researchers to produce nanometric-sized particles to be embedded into flexible polymeric matrices. Here, we present the sol-gel preparation of crystalline BaTiO3 nanoparticles (NPs) obtained by reacting barium acetate (Ba(CH3COO)2) and titanium (IV) isopropoxide (Ti(OiPr)4). The reaction was performed both at ambient conditions and by a hydrothermal process carried on at 200 °C for times ranging from 2 to 8 h. Doped BaTiO3 nanoparticles were also produced by addition of Na, Ca, and Bi cations. The powders were annealed at 900 °C in order to improve NPs crystallinity and promote the cubic-to-tetragonal (c⟶t) phase transformation. The microstructural features of nanoparticles were investigated in dependence of both the hydrothermal reaction time and the presence of dopants. It is found that short hydrothermal treatment (2 h) can produce BaTiO3 spherical and more homogeneous nanoparticles with respect to longer hydrothermal treatments (4 h, 6 h, 8 h). These particles (2 h) are characterized by decreased dimension (approx. 120 nm), narrower size distribution and higher tetragonality (1.007) in comparison with particles prepared at ambient pressure (1.003). In addition, the short hydrothermal treatment (2 h) produces particles with tetragonality comparable to the one obtained after the longest process (8 h). Finally, dopants were found to affect to different extents both the c⟶t phase transformation and the crystallite sizes.

A New Approach for the Fabrication of Tetragonal BaTiO3 Nanoparticles

For the first time, the BaTiO3 nano-sized particles were obtained through solid-state reaction by employing the titanium oxide nanoparticle. Meanwhile, by using TiO2 with micro-sized particles, the synthesized BaTiO3 shows the micro-sized. The XRD pattern confirms that both BaTiO3 nano-sized and micro-sized particles display the tetragonal structure. Both SEM and TEM analysis revealed that the size of the nano-sized material is in the range of 30–50 nm; in the meantime, the microsized material shows a size of 500 nm. The Eg of both BaTiO3 micro-sized and nano-sized were calculated by using the Kubelka-Munk function. The shifted bandgap of BaTiO3 nano-sized particle is nearly 0.24 eV larger than that of BaTiO3 miro-sized particle due to the particle size effect. The P-E measurement of n-BaTiO3 proved that the obtained BaTiO3 nano-sized is ferroelectric material. The result may provide a new route for the fabrication of barium titanate nanoparticle with ferroelectric properties.

The Isoelectric Point and the Surface Charge of Barium Titanate Nanoparticles/Graphene Oxide Determined Using the Electrophoretic Mobility Technique

Barium titanate nanopowders, and composite materials of barium titanate/ graphene oxide (10 wt.% of graphene oxide according to the initial composite composition) were synthesized by hydrothermal method at the fixed reaction condition of 200 oC and 24 hours. The obtained powders were characterized by different techniques: X-ray diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, Particles size distribution, and Scanning electron microscopy. Zeta potential measurement under electrophoretic mobility technique was also employed to investigate the stability of the BaTiO3 nanoparticles and composite materials of barium titanate/graphene oxide. The results showed that the BaTiO3 present with the tetragonal crystal structure (P4mm, a = 4.0000 Å, c = 4.0109 Å) and has uniform morphology with the grain sizes are in the range of 70 - 140 nm. The BaTiO3 nanoparticles were well distribution and covered on a surface of graphene oxide. The BaTiO3 nanoparticles, and BaTiO3/graphene oxide are stable in alkali, neutral media, and acidic media up to pH ~ 5.