A photo-sensitive piezoelectric composite material of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) and titanium oxide phthalocyanine

•Our light-sensitive piezoelectric material is a composite of P(VDF-TrFE) and TiOPc.•The added TiOPc does not affect the P(VDF-TrFE) crystallization.•Our composite material possesses a high broad sensitivity to visible light.•The impedance of the composite decreases significantly with light illumination.•An optimal 10% TiOPc gives the best visible spectrum and piezoelectric effect.

Photo-driven materials are an emerging research field due to its real-time definable capabilities and wide ranging potential applications. Previous research in the field has been limited to opto-electrical interactions. In this study, we investigated an opto-mechanical composite material of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] and titanium oxide phthalocyanine (TiOPc). The characteristics of this developed composite material were examined using SEM, FTIR, and XRD analytical methods. Our results showed that a remnant polarization and coercive field can be increased with a proportional increase of TiOPc in the composite. Experimental results show that the optimal composition of the TiOPc to P(VDF-TrFE) was 10 wt% (d33 = 18 pC/N, 30% of impedance variation at 100 Hz). Our developed composite material has good potential as an opto-configurable mechanism for various applications.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide