Pyroelectricity and the electric field dependence of crystallinity in polyvinylidene fluoride

Abstract
As a result of a series of experiments designed to determine the magnitude of the primary and secondary contributions to the pyroelectric coefficient in polyvinylidene fluoride, we have concluded that those contributions cannot account for the magnitude of the pyroelectric effect. This result has led us to hypothesize that phase changes in the polymer are contributing to the measured pyroelectricity. According to this hypothesis, the polymer crystallinity should change in a reversible manner with the application of an electric field and such behavior has been observed.