Temperature-dependent dielectric properties of metal-doped ZnO nanofiller reinforced PVDF nanocomposites

Here, we report on the successful fabrication of organic-inorganic composite films with poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) polymer and calcium doped zinc oxide (CaZ) and cadmium doped zinc oxide (CdZ) as two different nanofillers. The incorporation of these nanofillers resulted in increased crystalline and piezoelectric β-phase content of PVDF composites. The comparison of temperature-dependent dielectric studies showed enhanced dielectric properties of CaZ-loaded PVDF composites compared to CdZ-based PVDF composites. At 1 kHz, a maximum dielectric permittivity of 26.13 with a dielectric loss of 0.477 was obtained for 10 wt% CaZ-loaded PVDF composite film (10 CaZ-P) at 100 °C. The relaxation time of as-prepared composites showed Arrhenius behavior and lower activation energy for 10 CaZ-P composites (66.24 kJ/mol). For the 10 CaZ-P composite films, the AFM topography analysis showed higher roughness value (16.54 nm) and confirmed the lower activation energy of the same.