Fabrication and characterization of flexible piezoelectric composites with natural rubber matrix

Abstract

This work aims to fabricate and characterize flexible piezoelectric composites with natural rubber (NR) matrix. Different amounts of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.65Ti0.35O3 (PMNT) powders were added in NR matrices. Porosity, tensile strength and percent elongation at break of composites tended to decrease with increasing PMNT content. The dielectric constant of the NR materials was found to be 3.5. It was raised up to 4.2, 5.0, 4.5, 4.8 and 5.1 when 60, 80, 100, 120 and 150 phr PMNT powders were added. However, dielectric loss of NR materials did not change with PMNT additions. Among this composite system, the NR/100PMNT composite showed the best piezoelectric properties, which its output voltage, piezoelectric coefficient (d33) and piezoelectric voltage coefficient (g33) values were equal to 1.61 V, 2.1 × 10−4 pC/N and 5.4 × 10−6 V⋅m/N, respectively. This composition composite is a promising material suitable for further improvement to be used as piezoelectric generators in energy harvesting applications.