Confinement-Induced One-Dimensional Ferroelectric Polymer Arrays

5 pages, 5 figures.-- Articles ASAP (As Soon As Publishable).-- Supporting Information Available at http://pubs.acs.org.This work demonstrates the use of wetting nanoporous alumina template with polymer solution to produce arrays of isolated poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) ferroelectric γ-type nanorods supported within a nonpolar α-structure film. The method is based upon a crystal phase transition which occurs due to PVDF confinement within alumina nanoporous. The system was studied using scanning X-ray microdiffraction (μ-XRD) that allows the solid−solid phase transition from the α-nonpolar crystal form (bulk) to the γ polar ferroelectric form (nanorod array) to be spatially resolved, as well as providing crystallinity and orientation information. The results reveal that the interaction between polymer chains and the porous membrane’s walls imposes a flat-on lamella growth along the nanorrods long axis, while improving crystal orientation.The authors thank the financial support from the MICINN (grants MAT2009-07789, MAT2008- 03232) and from the CSIC (PIE 200950I088), Spain.Peer reviewe