| Abstract: | Binary blends of ferroelectric (vinylidene fluoride-trifluorethylene) copolymer P(VDF-TrFE)] and amorphous poly(methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA) were investigated over the full range of composition, for the copolymer with 50 mol % of trifluorethylene. Dielectric measurements confirmed that the system becomes amorphous when the PMMA contents exceed 40 wt %. The observed dielectric losses could be attributed to the ferroelectric transition of the copolymer and to molecular relaxations, characteristic of the individual polymers. We demonstrate the thermally activated nature of the β-PMMA and β-P(VDF-TrFE) relaxations, with activation energies of 29.3 and 13.5 kcal/mol, respectively. We also demonstrate that the β-P(VDF-TrFE) relaxation cannot be attributed only to the copolymer glass transition and that its origin is not in the crystalline region, based on experimental evidences. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 2996–3002, 1999 |
