Nanoscale domain imaging and local piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ studies of single piezoelectric polymeric nanofibers

In this work, it is shown that the electrospun poly(vynilidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanofibers have polymer chains re-oriented along the fiber axis and the β-phase content reaches 72.7%, therefore being able to be implemented into electroactive device components. Further, nanoscale domain imaging and local piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ of the nanofibers have been intensively studied using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). The piezoelectric response (PR) imaging and butterfly amplitude loop have been demonstrated to confirm that the nanodomains result from the out-of-plane displacement and the d₃₃ has an uneven distribution with the higher values on the fiber periphery.