In this paper, we present a method to create a highly sensitive piezoelectric quasi 1–3 composite using a thermoplastic material filled with a piezoelectric powder. An up-scalable high-temperature dielectrophoresis (DEP) process is used to manufacture the quasi 1–3 piezoelectric polymer-ceramic composites. For this work, thermoplastic cyclic butylene terephthalate (CBT) is used as a polymer matrix and PZT (lead zirconium titanate) ceramic powder is chosen as the piezoelectric active filler material. At high temperatures, the polymer is melted to provide a liquid medium to align the piezoelectric particles using the DEP process inside the molten matrix. The resulting distribution of aligned particles is frozen upon cooling the composite down to room temperature in as little as 10 min. A maximum piezoelectric voltage sensitivity (g₃₃) value of 54 ± 4 mV·m/N is reported for the composite with 10 vol% PZT, which is twice the value calculated for PZT based ceramics.

While most of the work on piezoelectric composites focuses on methods to reduce the dielectric constant of the composite (for better sensor and energy harvesting performance), for haptic feedback and actuator applications the opposite is desirable. We present here a study of the effect of adding a second ceramic phase (BaTiO3 nanoparticles) to composites of (K_0.5N_0.5)_1-xLi_xNbO₃ (x = 0.03) in PVDF-TrFE-CFE in order to increase the dielectric constant of the composite. Adding small amounts of these nanoparticles to the composites results in an increase in the dielectric constant and, at high total ceramic loadings, an increase in the density of the composite. Furthermore, while adding larger amounts of nanoparticles leads to agglomeration and reduced densities, it also allows access to higher loadings of ceramic than normally attainable.

Piezoelectric composites made from soft and hard lead zirconium titanate (PZT) particles as filler and an epoxy as the matrix were prepared by dielectrophoresis and studied for their piezoelectric properties. It was found that the dielectric constant of the piezoelectric filler plays a significant role in determining the final piezoelectric properties of the composites. Composites with lower dielectric constant for the PZT filler material showed better piezoelectric properties compared to the composites with high dielectric constant filler. This can be ascribed to a more efficient poling of the piezoelectric filler particles. The aging behaviour of these composites was compared to that reported for monolithic ceramics.