The electromechanical (E-M) effect,

The electromechanical (E-M) effect, which can convert energy between the electric form

and mechanical form, is the foundation for many current technologies and plays a critical

role in the development of the next generation. Although there are different mechanisms

to create the E-M effect, the piezoelectric and electrostrictive effects have been exten-

sively studied. Piezoelectric crystals and ceramics are the primary materials for current E-

M devices, such as sonar transducers, pressure/stress sensors, ultrasonic transducers, high

frequency filters, acoustic resonators, ultrasonic motors, actuators and microelectrome-

chanical systems (MEMS). From an E-M device point of view, polymeric materials

provide many unique advantages, including high flexibility, light weight, high stress

impact resistance, low process temperature and easy processing. Therefore, it would be

advantageous to fabricate E-M devices from polymeric materials. Unfortunately, tradi-

tional piezoelectric polymers exhibit a much lower E-M performance than crystals and

ceramics. It therefore makes sense to improve the E-M performance of the polymeric