Tuning of \(\upbeta\)-Phase in PVDF via nickel ferrite incorporation

Abstract

Fluoropolymers are fascinating in the high-tech industry due to their widespread applications, including fabricating actuators and sensors, controlling and monitoring storage, and energy generation. In this paper, we have communicated the development of an electroactive β-phase in flexible, lightweight, and thermally stable polymer nanocomposite in the configuration of 93% PVDF-7% NiFe₂O₄ by weight percentage fabricated via a cost-effective solution-casting technique. XRD, FTIR, and TGA were performed to check the structural and thermal stability of the system. Low loading of nano-nickel ferrite in the PVDF, the composite developed a substantial electroactive β-phase of 85.85% confirmed from FTIR analysis with enhanced thermal stability of 60.2 °C with respect to PVDF, as evident from the TGA study. FESEM, HRTEM, AFM, EDAX, and elemental mapping have been performed to study the microstructural and surface topology of the developed composite quantitatively and qualitatively. AFM study confirms the size of the spherulitics modulated to 7.4 μm as compared to 2.9 μm of PVDF referred to enhance thermal and mechanical stability along with increased β-phase. UV–visible spectroscopy study reveals the composite’s optical band gap to be 3.46 eV. The ambient condition’s capacitive, resistive, conductive, switching, and magnetic characteristics have been studied to exploit their properties for suitable device inclusion, including flexible electronics. The composite possesses a saturation polarisation of 1.5790 µC/cm², remnant polarisation of 0.3725 µC/cm², and a coercive field of 60.45 kV/cm at room temperature, which is useful for energy storage devices. The room-temperature ferrimagnetism suggests the composite’s application in multifunctional devices with a first-order magneto-electric (α_ME) coefficient of 11 mV/cm.Oe.