A soft piezoelectric elastomer with enhanced piezoelastic response

This work aims to study, develop, and validate a soft piezo-polymer with enhanced piezo-elastic response and easy castable in a free shape through a single and easy process. The work identified a novel formulation for soft piezopolymers based on ambient temperature polymerizable silicone rubber, easily fabricable in 3D printed plastic moulds. Combining polymerizable silicone with a barium titanate (BaTiO3) ceramic powder and defining a detailed fabrication procedure of casting, curing and high voltage poling, we defined how to obtain a promising soft piezoelectric elastomer for countless sensing applications. This study includes information about the mould design used to realize, cure and polarize cylindric elastomeric specimens. This piezopolymer stands out for its flexibility, softness, easy fabrication at ambient temperature and obtainability in multiple shapes and bulky 3D geometries. Finally, we investigated different configurations of the piezopolymer formulation analysing the powder concentration and voltage polarization effects over the mechanical, piezoelectric and morphological characteristics. The specimens exhibit a high induced polarization d33 with values up to 22.5 pC N−1 , comparable with poled β-phase polyvinylidene difluoride. We finally underlined limits encountered in the most extreme configurations.