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)O-3 (PZT) in poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Excellent piezoelectric properties (permittivity epsilon(r) to similar to 40, piezoelectric charge constant d(33) up to 25 pC/N, piezoelectric voltage coefficient g(33) up to 75 mV m/N), electrical properties (conductivity a about 1 x 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. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.