Fabrication and characterization of thermally drawn fiber capacitors

Abstract

We report on the fabrication of all-in-fiber capacitors with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) as the dielectric material. Electrodes made of conductive polymer are separated by a PVDF thin film within a polycarbonate casing that is thermally drawn into multiple meters of light-weight, readily functional fiber. Capacitive response up to 20 kHz is measured and losses at higher-frequencies are accounted for in a materials-based model. A multilayered architecture in which a folded PVDF film separates interdigitated electrodes over an increased area is fabricated. This structure greatly enhances the capacitance, which scales linearly with the fiber length and is unaffected by fiber dimension fluctuations.