Electroactive poly(vinylidene fluoride)-based materials: recent progress, challenges, and opportunities

Abstract A poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and its copolymers are polymers that in specific crystalline phases, show high dielectric and piezoelectric values, excellent mechanical behavior, and good thermal and chemical stability, suitable for many applications from the biomedical area to energy devices. This chapter introduces the main properties, processability, and polymorphism of PVDF. Further, the recent advances in the applications based on those materials are presented and discussed. Thus, it shows the key role of PVDF and its copolymers as smart and multifunctional material, expanding the limits of polymer-based technologies.