TENSILE AND DYNAMIC-MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF POLYMER BLENDS BASED ON PVDF

This work reports on tensile property measurements and a dynamic mecha nical study of polymer blends, varying in composition and obtained fro m three conventional polymers: polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyvin yl acetate (PVA) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). It is the aim of this research to demonstrate that polymer systems with potentially goo d pyro-piezoelectric properties are capable of obviating the difficult ies which arise from the use of ceramic materials, which have been tra ditionally employed to achieve pyro-piezoelectric materials, i.e. mate rials capable of adopting complex shapes, which possess good mechanica l properties and which, in addition, are inexpensive. All these are pr erequisites for the determination of their pyro-piezoelectric properti es. The results obtained from measurements of these properties are int erpreted in terms of component compatibility in the different blends, as component behaviour is well known to play an important role in the properties of the end-product. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.