Synthesis and Piezoelectricity Behavior of PVDF-Based IPN Hydrogel

In order to produce poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-containing hydrogels with high electrical conductivity and high flexibility, a combination of in situ cross-linking polymerization and solvent substitution was used to design a hydrogel in which the polyacrylamide (PAM) cross-linking network was interpenetrated with the molecular chain of PVDF, using acrylamide (AM) as the monomer, N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as the cross-linking agent, and ammonium persulfate (APS) as the initiator. The structure and properties of the interpenetrating network hydrogels were investigated by means of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, nuclear magnetic resonance and other methods. The results show that PVDF molecular chains are uniformly distributed in the hydrogel structure and interpenetrate with the PAM network, and the β-crystalline form of PVDF is significantly increased. The PVDF-based hydrogel exhibits excellent mechanical and piezoelectric properties, with the highest potential output of 15.17 mV under the compressive stress of 12.5 kPa, highlighting its potential as a robust material for the high-performance piezoelectric sensors.