Electrospinning as a versatile technique producing nanofibers was employed to study the influence of the processing parameters and chemical and physical parameters of solutions on poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) fibers&rsquo
morphology, crystallinity, phase composition and dielectric and piezoelectric characteristics. PVDF fibrous layers with nano- and micro-sized fiber diameters were prepared by a controlled and reliable electrospinning process. The fibers with diameters from 276 nm to 1392 nm were spun at a voltage of 25 kV&ndash
50 kV from the pure PVDF solutions or in the presence of a surfactant&mdash
Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Although the presence of the CTAB decreased the fibers&rsquo
diameter and increased the electroactive phase content, the piezoelectric performance of the PVDF material was evidently deteriorated. The maximum piezoelectric activity was achieved in the fibrous PVDF material without the use of the surfactant, when a piezoelectric charge of 33 pC N&minus
1 was measured in the transversal direction on a mean fiber diameter of 649 nm. In this direction, the material showed a higher piezoelectric activity than in the longitudinal direction.