Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems (CEHMS)University of Texas at Dallas. Department of ChemistryUniversity of Texas at Dallas. The Alan G. MacDiarmid Nanotech InstituteTetramer Technologies L.L.C.Clemson University. Department of Material Science and Engineering and the Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies (COMSET)Clemson University. Holcombe Electrical and Computer EngineeringBaur, CaryDiMaio, Jeffrey R.McAllister, ElliotHossini, RezaWagener, EarlBallato, JohnPriya, ShashankBallato, ArthurSmith, Dennis W. Jr.2015-05-042015-05-042012-12-15Journal of Applied Physics 112, 124104 (2012); doi: 10.1063/1.47689230021-8979http://hdl.handle.net/10919/51993The piezoelectric performance of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is shown to double through the controlled incorporation of carbon nanomaterial. Specifically, PVDF composites containing carbon fullerenes (C-60) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are fabricated over a range of compositions and optimized for their Young's modulus, dielectric constant, and d(31) piezoelectric coefficient. Thermally stimulated current measurements show a large increase in internal charge and polarization in the composites over pure PVDF. The electromechanical coupling coefficients (k(31)) at optimal loading levels are found to be 1.84 and 2 times greater than pure PVDF for the PVDF-C-60 and PVDF-SWNT composites, respectively. Such property-enhanced nanocomposites could have significant benefit to electromechanical systems employed for structural sensing, energy scavenging, sonar, and biomedical imaging. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4768923]application/pdfen-USIn CopyrightCarbon nanotubesComposite materialsPiezoelectric materialsPolarizationCharged currentsArticle - Refereedhttp://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/112/12/10.1063/1.4768923https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4768923