In contrast to the behavior observed for the normal ferroelectric
copolymer, quenching the relaxor ferroelectric
terpolymer leads to a 50% decrease of the βr relaxation
strength in the ε spectra at 0◦C and a concurrent reduction
in ε (Fig. 15). This result supports the notion
that the βr process in the terpolymer is not simply associated
with segmental motion in the amorphous phase,
which would otherwise have led to an increase in the relaxation
strength. An earlier study by Klein et al. found
that quenching P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) not only retards the
crystallization process, but also induces the formation of
polar all trans conformation, that is, reducing the content
of relaxor nanoclusters [17]. Since the boundary motions
and reorientation of nanoclusters dominate the βr process,
the reduction of ε and ε in the quenched terpolymer is
consistent with the proposed molecular origin.