Highly flexible piezoelectric 0–3 PZT–PDMS composites with high filler content

Flexible piezoelectric composites offer alternative and/or additional solutions to sensor, actuator and transducer applications. Here high density, highly flexible piezoelectric composites with 0–3 connectivity using filler volume fractions up to 50 vol.% are realized by solution casting of dispersions of ferroelectric (Pb(ZrxTi1−x)O3 (PZT) in poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Excellent piezoelectric properties (permittivity ɛr up to ∼40, piezoelectric charge constant d33 up to 25 pC/N, piezoelectric voltage coefficient g33 up to 75 mV m/N), electrical properties (conductivity σ about 1 × 10−6 S/m at 1000 Hz) and mechanical properties (storage modulus E′ up to 10 MPa, loss modulus E″ less than 0.5 MPa, limited creep and stress relaxation) have been realized. The high flexibility combined with excellent properties of these composites opens new ways to ‘soft touch’ applications in a variety of transducer and sensor applications.