Chemical Engineering Science, Vol.58, No.2, 397-400, 2003
Structural analysis of the P(VDF/TrFE) copolymer film
We have examined the morphology of an ultra-thin film P(VDF/TrFE) copolymer by the atomic force microscopy and the transmission electron microscopy, which show the same images with "rod-like" structures in the size of 50 nm in width and few hundreds nanometer in length. In the electron diffraction pattern, several rings are observed which indicate that the crystallites have no preferred orientation. According to the sharpest and strongest observed Bragg spacing from inner to outer ring, and to the strongest diffraction which is related to the d(h00) spacing, we can conclude that the crystals tend to form a fibrous texture keeping the a-axis aligned parallel to the substrate surface. These results enable us to improve our knowledge on the mechanism of the ferroelectric and piezoelectric activities in P(VDF/TrFE) copolymer and thus constitute a new study on the crystallite axis orientation.
Keywords:P(VDF/TrFE) copolymer;AFM;TEM;electron diffraction;crystallite axis orientations;crystalline lamellae