Ferroelectric Phase Transition of VDF/TrFE Copolymer at High Pressures

High pressure ultrasonic and D-E hystresis measurements were performed on a vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (VDF/TrFE) copolymer with 54 mol% VDF content to investigate the pressure effect on physical properties accompanying wiht a ferroelectric phase transition. Differing from the results at atmospheric pressure where the ferro-to-paraelectric phase transition proceeded simply in one-step, this copolymer exhibited at 350 MPa two-step temperature variations in ultrasonic velocity and absorption, and remanent polarization upon the ferroelectric phase transition. These results agree well with the previous results of DTA and X-ray diffraction experiments, suggesting that the changes in the nature of the ferroelectric phase transition is attributed to the pressure-induced structural transformation.