Development of ferroelectric ceramic/polymer composites for electro-active sensors applications

The aim of this work is the preparation and characterisation of ferroelectric polymer/ceramic composites for use as pyro- md pyroelectric detectors. We have developed a sol-gel technique for the preparation of lead titanate and modified lead titanate ceramic powders (with calcium and manganese). The preparation of the ferroelectric ceramic powders by the sol-gel technique allows as obtaining pure ceramic powders with controlled morphology. 0-3 composites are made by the dispersion of the ceramic powders on a P(VDF-TrFE) matrix with a volume fraction of 0.5. We have prepared composite films with 100 mu m thickness with aluminium electrodes to study the electric, dielectric, ferroelectric, piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties.. The electro-active properties obtained for this composites seem very prom ising for sensor applications.