ABSTRACT:Fast quenching from the melt was found to effect greatly the structures and ferroelectric properties of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene copolymers (P(VDF /TrFE)) in contrast to slow cooling. The results are discussed for high-and low-VDF content divided at about 50 mol% VDF. For the high-VDF copolymers, the quenched samples showed high T, like poled samples, implying an ordered ferroelectric phase. Poling the quenched samples at elevated temperatures produced a ferroelectric polarization the direction of which was restored after cooling from above T,. For the low-VDF copolymers, the quenched samples showed a crystalline phase different from that of the slow-cooled samples, which was found to exist in a metastable state. The quenched samples exhibited no ferroelectricity unlike the slow-cooled samples but poling at elevated temperatures induced pyroelectricity with anomalous temperature dependence. From the present results, the fast quenching seems to produce a phase stable at low temperatures and the poling at elevated temperatures causes crystal growth under an electric field resulting in thermallystable spontaneous polarizations. Crystal structures of the low-VDF copolymers are also speculated based on the present results and published structure models.KEY WORDS Vinylidene Fluoride-Trifluoroethylene Copolymers I Fast Quenching I Melt Crystallization I Ferroelectric Phase Transition I Spontaneous Polarization I Pyroelectricity I Copolymers of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene (P(VDF/TrFE)) have been extensively studied since the discovery of ferroelectricity in samples with high-VDF content as the first clear example of a ferroelectric polymer.1.2 Ferroelectricity originates in the structural characteristics of the PVDF form I crystal, namely, the all-trans chain conformation for the highest polarization and the pseudohexagonal chain packing to facilitate chain rotation by 60° steps. 3.4 The high-VD F copolymers are of great advantage to the formation of ferroelectricity because the form I crystal is adopted by as-crystallized samples and a high degree of crystallinity is attained by heat treatment. On the other hand, copolymers with VDF content lower than 50 mol% have been found by our study to exhibit intricate ferroelectric behavior, for example, a D-E double hysteresis loop and an abnormally low amount of remanent polarization. 5 Ferroelectricity is a crystal property which is expected to be strongly effected by a method of melt crystallization in semicrystalline polymers, i.e., slow cooling or fast quenching. We have developed a method of fast quenching * Present address: