Abstract

Polyamide 6 (PA6) as a cost-effective polar polymer and barium titanate (BT) as piezoelectric ceramic nanofiller were melt compounded with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) matrix to enhance the beta electroactive phase. A series of samples with two blending ratios of PVDF/PA6 (90/10 and 70/30 wt%/wt%) each containing 1, 3, and 5 wt% of BT were prepared. The SEM results revealed that the addition of BT to the neat blends refined the biphasic morphology which is mainly due to selective localization of BTs in PA6 dispersed phase as confirmed by TEM observation and wetting parameter predictions. The EDX analysis demonstrated a uniform distribution of BT nanoparticles in the filled systems. FTIR and XRD results showed that beta content increased as a result of blending while the alpha phase was suppressed. The BT nanoparticles inclusion to the blends showed a synergistic effect on the beta-polymorph content. These results in combination with the data derived from DSC (indicating reduction of the total crystallinity) complement the idea of beta enhancement by the addition of BT nanoparticles and PA6 into PVDF.