Fabrication and characterization of a novel photoactive-based (0–3) piezocomposite material with potential as a functional material for additive manufacturing of piezoelectric sensors

The development of 3D-printed sensors and actuators from piezocomposite materials has increased in recent years due to the ease of production, low-cost and improved functionality additive manufacturing provides. The piezocomposite material developed in this work has the potential to be used as a functional material in stereolithographic additive manufacturing by combining the optical, viscoelastic properties of NOA 65 and the piezoelectric properties of Barium Titanate. The new (0–3) piezocomposite material consists of Norland Optical Adhesive 65 (NOA 65) as the polymer matrix and Barium Titanate (BaTiO 3 ) with particles sizes (100 nm, 200 nm and 500 nm) as the dielectric filler. We synthesized thin film samples of the (0–3) piezocomposite with 60% w/w BaTiO 3 using solution mixing and spin coating method to produce samples with layer thickness of 100 µm. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques were used to analyze the microstructure of the piezocomposite to determine the effect of different particles sizes of BaTiO 3 on the structural and mechanical properties of the composite. The longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient d 33 was also measured using the laser vibrometer technique. Both single point scans and full surface scans were carried out to obtain the average piezoelectric coefficient d 33 of the composite material. The results of the SEM confirmed the (0–3) structure of the piezocomposite material with isolated BaTiO 3 nanoparticles. It further showed the uniform distribution of the BaTiO 3 nanoparticles across each of the samples. FTIR analysis showed that the filler nanoparticles had no effect on the native structure of the polymer matrix. The longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient d 33 of the piezocomposite material was observed to increase with increasing BaTiO 3 particle sizes, while the indentation modulus of the composite investigated using the method of Oliver and Pharr was observed to decrease with an increase in particle size. Results from the single point scans showed the composite with BaTiO 3 particle size 100 nm, 200 nm and 500 nm having an average d 3 3 of 2.1 pm/V, 3.0 pm/V and 3.9 pm/V while the average d 33 obtained from the full surface scan of 1430 scan points showed 1.4 pm/V, 6.1 pm/V, 7.2 pm/V.