Abstract
The piezoelectric effect in Poly(vinylidene fluoride), PVDF, was discovered over four decades ago and since then, significant work has been carried out aiming at the production of high p-phase fibres and their integration into fabric structures for energy harvesting. However, little work has been done in the area of production of “true piezoelectric fabric structures” based on flexible polymeric materials such as PVDF. In this work, we demonstrate “3-D knitted spacer” technology based all-fibre piezoelectric fabrics as power generators and energy harvesters. The knitted single-structure piezoelectric generator consists of high p-phase (~80%) piezoelectric PVDF monofilaments as the spacer yarn interconnected between silver (Ag) coated polyamide multifilament yarn layers acting as the top and bottom electrodes. The novel and unique textile structure provides an output power density in the range of 1.105.10 gWcm-2 at applied impact pressures in the range of 0.02-0.10 MPa, thus providing significantly higher power outputs and efficiencies over the existing 2-D woven and nonwoven piezoelectric structures. The high energy efficiency, mechanical durability and comfort of the soft, flexible and all-fibre based power generator is highly attractive for a variety of potential applications such as wearable electronic systems and energy harvesters charged from ambient environment or by human movement.
Highlights
The harvesting of waste energy from ambient environment and human movement has long been considered as an attractive alternative over traditional rechargeable batteries for providing electrical power to low-energy consumption devices such as wireless body worn sensors and wearable consumer electronics [1,2,3]
The high energy efficiency, mechanical durability and comfort of the soft, flexible and all-fibre based power generator is highly attractive for a variety of potential applications such as wearable electronic systems and energy harvesters charged from ambient environment or by human movement
We have developed three-dimensional piezoelectric fabrics based on “3-D knitted spacer” textile technology [4]
Summary
The harvesting of waste energy from ambient environment and human movement has long been considered as an attractive alternative over traditional rechargeable batteries for providing electrical power to low-energy consumption devices such as wireless body worn sensors and wearable consumer electronics [1,2,3]. For energy harvesting from human movement, the fibre based electrical power generators are highly desirable as they are light weight and comfortable and look no different from the conventional fabrics. The flexible textile structures can themselves be designed so as to provide piezoelectric output on low levels of strains and loadings while providing high fatigue resistance under a large number of variable mechanical deformation and loading cycles.
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