Abstract
Considerable interest has been devoted to converting mechanical energy into electricity using polymer nanofibres. In particular, piezoelectric nanofibres produced by electrospinning have shown remarkable mechanical energy-to-electricity conversion ability. However, there is little data for the acoustic-to-electric conversion of electrospun nanofibres. Here we show that electrospun piezoelectric nanofibre webs have a strong acoustic-to-electric conversion ability. Using poly(vinylidene fluoride) as a model polymer and a sensor device that transfers sound directly to the nanofibre layer, we show that the sensor devices can detect low-frequency sound with a sensitivity as high as 266 mV Pa−1. They can precisely distinguish sound waves in low to middle frequency region. These features make them especially suitable for noise detection. Our nanofibre device has more than five times higher sensitivity than a commercial piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride) film device. Electrospun piezoelectric nanofibres may be useful for developing high-performance acoustic sensors.
Highlights
Considerable interest has been devoted to converting mechanical energy into electricity using polymer nanofibres
Using poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) as a model polymer and a device structure that allows sound to directly transfer to the nanofibre layer, we show that the nanofibre sensor devices are able to detect low-frequency sound with a sensitivity as high as 266 mV Pa À 1
In comparison with the sensor device made of a commercial piezoelectric PVDF dense film, our nanofibre devices have more than five times higher sensitivity
Summary
Considerable interest has been devoted to converting mechanical energy into electricity using polymer nanofibres. Our group and other researchers’ studies have indicated that nanofibres electrospun from piezoelectric polymers, such as poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropene) (PVDF-HFP) and poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)), have strong piezoelectricity without stretching and poling treatments[16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24] These piezoelectric nanofibres have shown great potential for making mechanical sensors and energy generators[16,18,19,22]. In comparison with the sensor device made of a commercial piezoelectric PVDF dense film, our nanofibre devices have more than five times higher sensitivity They can precisely distinguish sound waves in the low to middle frequency region. The devices show higher sensitivity to the sound of the pressure level above 100 dB, which is very suitable for detecting noise
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