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Poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE-CFE)) is a ferroelectric terpolymer relaxor with a static dielectric constant of 50, which was developed using defect modification to eliminate remnant polarization in the normal ferroelectric PVDF. In this work, this solution processable terpolymer was used as the gate insulator in bottom gated organic thin-film transistors with a pentacene semiconductor layer. Due to the high dielectric constant of P(VDF-TrFE-CFE), a large capacitive coupling between the gate and channel can be achieved which causes a high charge concentration at the interface of the semiconductor and dielectric layers. In this device, an on/off ratio of 104 and a low minimum operation gate voltage (5-10 V) were attained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present directly measured electrocaloric effect (ECE) from the poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) 65/35 mol. % copolymer. The data reveal a large difference in the ECE between that measured in applying and in removing the electric field. The difference is significantly reduced by modifying the copolymer with 20 Mrad of high energy electron irradiation. Moreover, an isothermal entropy change ΔSint = 160 J kg-1 K-1 and an adiabatic temperature change ΔTint = 35 °C can be induced in the irradiated copolymer. These results demonstrate the promise of achieving a significant ECE in ferroelectric polymers near first-order ferroelectric-paraelectric transition where multiple intermediate phases can exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]