Effect of carbon nanotubes addition on properties of 0–3 pyroelectric ceramic/polymer composites

0–3 pyroelectric ceramic/polymer composites were fabricated using (Pb[(Mn 1/3 Nb 2/3 ) 1/2 (Mn 1/3 Sb 2/3 ) 1/2 ] 0.04 (Zr 0.05 Ti 0.95 ) 0.96 O 3 )(PZT) and Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) by hot-pressing technology. The influences of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the volume conductivity, specific heat capacity, dielectric, piezoelectric, and pyroelectric properties were discussed. The results indicated that the CNTs acted as a conductive phase which is helpful to improve the conductivity of the composites and thereby enhance the pyroelectric properties. With the increasing CNTs content, the specific heat capacity of the composites decreased, while the dielectric constant, dielectric loss and volume conductivity all exhibit an increasing trend. As a result, the piezoelectric strain factor ( d 33 ), pyroelectric coefficient ( p ) and figure of merit ( F D ) are all significantly improved. And 0.9 wt% CNTs corresponds to the maximum d 33 , p and F D . It was concluded that CNTs-addition was an effective method to enhance the piezoelectric and pyroelectric performance of the composites.