Dielectric properties of ZnO/PVDF flexible composites

The focus of this study is to make flexible ZnO/PVDF fibrous composites and to investigate their dielectric behavior. ZnO fibrous network is first produced by calcination and sintering of the precursor PVA/Zinc Acetate electrospun fiber mats. Composite making includes hot-pres melt-casting of ZnO fibrous nonwoven mat after sandwiched between solution cast PVDF films. SEM images of the nanocomposite show that fibrous network is affected during casting and turned into the ZnO short fibers, but remained well distributed/dispersed into PVDF. Processing the ZnO/PVDF flexible composite film facilitates successful handling, and enables measurements for dielectric properties, not practical on sole ZnO fibrous mat. Existence of the ZnO short fibers in the composite film increases the dielectric constant significantly while slight penalty on dielectric loss is measured compared to PVDF film alone.