Discipline: Nanoscience
Subcategory: Materials Science
Akinwunmi Joaquim - Tennessee State University
Co-Author(s): Omari Paul, Tennessee state University, Nashville, Tennessee Yuri Barnakov, Tennessee state University, Nashville, Tennessee Ranganathan Parthasarathy, Tennessee state university, Nashville, Tennessee Lizhi Ouyang, Tennessee state university, Nashville, Tennessee Frances Williams, Tennessee state university, Nashville, Tennessee
Strain engineering is an innovative and prominent concept in the field of materials science. The coupling of materials’ strain/stress with their functional properties leads to a number of unprecedented phenomena ranging from surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) enhancement in corrugated plasmonic structures to modification of the energy landscape in catalytic systems, from improving of nanoscale ferroelectricity in coherent epitaxial films to an increase of energy harvesting efficiency in photovoltaic devices. Herein, we report on preliminary results of our work related to modification and improvement of piezoelectric properties of PVDF nanocomposites by employing strain technology. Two experimental approaches are utilized to produce polymer nanocomposites: (i) mechanical stretching of PVDF matrix with doped ferroelectric BaTiO3 (barium titanate) nanoparticles and (ii) doping of PVDF with mechanochemically synthesized BaTiO3 nanoparticles. The overall goal is to improve elasticity of polymer composites in order to enhance their piezoelectric functionalities. The mechanical, structural and electrical properties of the synthesized materials will also be discussed.
ERN_abstract_Akinwunmi Joaquim.docxFunder Acknowledgement(s): National science foundation (NSF)
Faculty Advisor: Dr Frances R. Williams, frwilliams@tnstate.edu
Role: I did the synthesis and characterization of the materials used in this work and i also performed the mechanical test on various samples.