Melt Electrowriting of Poly(vinylidene Fluoride-Co-Trifluoroethylene)

Abstract

Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-co-TrFE)) is an electroactive polymer with growing interest for applications in biomedical materials and flexible electronics. In this study, a solvent-free additive manufacturing technique called melt electrowriting (MEW) has been utilized to fabricate well-defined microperiodic structures of P(VDF-co-TrFE). Melt electrowriting of the highly viscous polymer melts was initiated using a heated collector at temperatures above 120 °C and required remarkably slow collector speeds below 100 mm/min. This contribution shows electrohydrodynamic processing of fibers with micrometer resolution into defined structures with an important electroactive polymer.<br>

Melt electrowriting of poly(vinylidene difluoride) using a heated collector

“…To overcome this defect, a heated collector was tested at temperatures between 50 and 150°C with the latter indicating the maximum temperature as the fibers lose their shape. Such increasing fiber flattening/melting onto the collector substrate is expected and was observed when processing polypropylene or poly(vinylidene fluoride‐co‐trifluoroethylene) onto a heated collector with increasing temperature 16,18 . This slightly affected the fiber diameter which ranged from 35 ± 16 to 39 ± 9 μm for RT to 110°C at a printing speed of 4000 mm/min.…”