Jong Soon Lee

Simple synthesis of palladium nanoparticles, β-phase formation, and the control of chain and dipole orientations in palladium-doped poly(vinylidene fluoride) thin films.

Palladium nanoparticles (Pd-NPs) are prepared by a simple one-step procedure when poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is used as a polymer stabilizer. High-quality Pd-NP-doped PVDF thin films are fabricated where the heat-controlled spin-coating technique is adopted. The effect of Pd-NPs on the crystal modifications and lamellae orientation in PVDF films is investigated using Fourier transform infrared-grazing incidence reflection absorption spectroscopy. The electroactive β phase and edge-on crystalline lamellae are found to be formed preferentially in Pd-NP-doped PVDF films. As a result, Pd-NP-doped PVDF ultrathin films gave a very good discernible contrast between the written and erased data bits, which suggests that they can be used as a scanning-probe-microscopy-based ferroelectric memory device or a ferroelectric gate field-effect transistor memory device in the future.

Heartbeat monitoring technique based on corona-poled PVDF film sensor for smart apparel application

Flexible piezoelectric polymer materials for smart apparel and wearable computer applications are of great interest. Among known ferroelectric and piezoelectric polymers, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) exhibit β-phase under poling and is known to give highest piezo-, pyro-, and ferroelectric properties. Previous reports suggests that, during corona poling of the PVDF film, a high surface electric potential is generated resulting in a high internal electric field within the polymer film causing the polarization of the dipoles along the direction of the applied electric field. The resultant phase change from α- to β-phase and the dipole switching generates displacement of charges or piezoelectricity. And also mechanical variation would change dipole density of PVDF film. In this report, we measured human heartbeat signal from an DAQ interfaced with a custommade voltage-amplifier with specific frequency filtering function using the corona-poled PVDF film of various sizes and thickness as a piezoelectric sensor and analyzed it. We employed elastic textile band to sensor system for comfortable fit on wrist or ankle. And then, we found the feasibility of applying flexible PVDF film sensor to smart apparel application which can sense heartbeat rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, accidental external impact on human body, etc.

The effect of an external electric field on solid-state phase transition of (P(VDF/TrFE)(72/28)

The copolymers of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene (P(VDF/TrFE)) with VDF content of 50–80 mole % can be applied to the field of nonvolatile ferroelectric polymeric random access memory (FePoRAM) devices, since they exhibit stable ferroelectricβ-phase at room temperature with spontaneous polarization of the C-F dipoles towards an external electric field greater than the coercive field. Many researchers have already reported the molecular structures and dynamics of the ferroelectric (F) crystalline phase and the unique change in chain conformation between polarF phase and non-polar paraelectric (P) phase near their Curie transition temperature (Tc) which is dependent on factors such as VDF content and annealing treatment conditions. The effect of external electric field strength on theF⇔P crystalline phase transition in P(VDF/TrFE)(72/28) random copolymer samples of nanometer thickness was investigated. Capacitance of 250 nm thick sample measured as a function of heating-cooling under varying external electric field strength exhibited increasingTc’s during heating (Tc↑) and cooling (Tc↓) under an applied electric field of more than 0.03 MV/cm. Applying cyclic bias electric field (+1 to −1 MV/cm) for samples kept isothermally at just above theirTc(Tc↓) during cooling, we were able to observe the field-inducedP→F phase transition. With increasing cycles of the applied electric field for sample maintained just above (Tc↓), the bistableC-E hysteresis was observed and the phase change fromP→F is irreversible even after the electric field is removed. However, for samples kept well above (Tc↓) and nearTm (100 °C and 120°C respectively) during cooling, theF-phase initially formed through the field-induced phase transition is reversibly transformed to theP-phase when the applied electric field is removed. Drastic changes were observed in both coercive field (Ec) and remanent polarization (Pr) values during heating and cooling near theTc range due to theF⇔P phase transition and the results are reported in detail here.