A green solvent strategy for the development of piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene) films for sensors and actuators applications

• Piezoelectric films of poly(vinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene) were prepared using a green solvent.
• 1,3-dioxolane proved to be a substitute for the conventional hazardous solvents.
• The characteristics of the green films were similar to the samples prepared with N,N-dimethylformamide.
• 1,3-dioxolane is a suitable solvent to prepare piezoelectric polymers.

Green chemistry approaches are increasingly relevant for the development of sustainable technologies, but this approach is scarcely being used in the field of piezoelectric polymers. Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) based materials are the family of polymers with the larger piezoelectric response and, when processed from solution, are typically prepared using N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent. This work demonstrates that poly(vinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene) P(VDF–TrFE) films can be prepared by solvent casting using 1,3-dioxolane (DXL) as a solvent. The influence of solvent evaporation temperature has been studied and compared with P(VDF-TrFE) films produced with DMF. It is shown that piezoelectric films with a d33 ~− 21 pC·N− 1 and suitable for applications can be obtained by this greener approach, opening the way for the development of environmentally friendlier sensors and actuators based on the PVDF family.

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