Fabrication and Studies of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Composites\ud For Piezoelectric Based Vibration Sensors

Piezoelectric polymers and ceramics are widely studied for their promising applications in\ud actuators and sensor technologies. Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) is a piezoelectric\ud polymer which is extensively studied due its piezoelectric response, chemical and mechanical\ud durability. However, the inherent drawback associated with functional polymers is a poor\ud electromechanical coupling. Though piezoelectric ceramics possess high electromechanical\ud coupling they are brittle and not suitable for certain applications. Hence, organic-inorganic\ud functional composites are believed to overcome both drawback of weak coupling in polymer\ud and high brittleness of ceramics. There have been extensive studies on PVDF-lead based\ud piezo composites, however, a lead free inorganic piezoelectric is preferred due to the\ud environmental friendly requirements