Polarization and structural properties of high-energy electron irradiated poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) copolymer films

The effect of high-energy electron irradiation on structural and polarization properties of 50/50 mol % copolymer of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) was investigated for both mechanically stretched and unstretched films. Although stretching can significantly enhance the polarization and dielectric responses in unirradiated films, it was observed that this enhancement was not significant in irradiated films. In addition, the polarization in both types of films after irradiation can be described quite well by a logarithmic mixing law of composites, which consist of crystallites embedded in an amorphous matrix with nearly the same fitting parameters. On the other hand, the enhancement of the mechanical properties from stretching persists after the irradiation, and the elastic modulus along the stretching direction remains high after irradiation in comparison with unstretched films. It was found that the dielectric dispersion in both types of films after irradiation fits well to the Vogel–Fulcher law. It was also observed that the crystallinity decreases and the crosslinking coefficient increases continuously with dose. However, there was no direct one to one type relationship between the crystallinity and the crosslinking coefficient. Although stretching can reduce the rate of crosslinking, the reduction of crystallinity with dose for stretched and unstretched films does not show a marked difference.