Corona poling of PZT ceramics and flexible piezoelectric composites

Abstract In the conventional poling method, piezoelectric ceramics and composites are poled by applying a large D.C. voltage directly to the sample. The poling of composites having a polymer matrix with 0–3 connectivity is especially difficult because the electric field within the high dielectric constant grains is far smaller than in the low dielectric constant polymer matrix. Therefore, very large electric fields are required to align the piezoelectric grains. Unfortunately, such large electric fields often cause localized dielectric breakdown of the samples which effectively prevents further poling.