Abstract
Flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators have attracted great attention due to their ability to convert ambient mechanical energy into electrical energy for low-power wearable electronic devices. Controlling the microstructure of the flexible piezoelectric materials is a potential strategy to enhance the electrical outputs of the piezoelectric nanogenerator. Three types of flexible polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric nanogenerator were fabricated based on well-aligned nanofibers, random oriented nanofibers and thick films. The electrical output performance of PVDF nanogenerators is systematically investigated by the influence of microstructures. The aligned nanofiber arrays exhibit highly consistent orientation, uniform diameter, and a smooth surface, which possesses the highest fraction of the polar crystalline β phase compared with the random-oriented nanofibers and thick films. The highly aligned structure and the large fraction of the polar β phase enhanced the output performance of the well-aligned nanofiber nanogenerator. The highest output voltage of 14 V and a short-circuit current of 1.22 µA were achieved under tapping mode of 10 N at 2.5 Hz, showing the potential application in flexible electronic devices. These new results shed some light on the design of the flexible piezoelectric polymer-based nanogenerators.
Highlights
Confronting the intemperate consumption of fossil energy and pollutants generated from their use [1], together with the rapid development of flexible and wearable electronics [2] and artificial intelligence, there is an urgent requirement to replace fossil fuels [3].Until now, various new sources of energy have been successfully demonstrated, including solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, nuclear, and mechanical energies [4]
The high content of the piezoelectric phase in the highly aligned poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanofibers resulted in superior mechanical energy conversion ability
The a-PVDF can generate a maximum output voltage as high as 14 V and a short-circuit over 1.22 μA. These results confirm that the well-aligned piezoelectric PVDF generator has great potential in practical application for wearable electronic equipment
Summary
Confronting the intemperate consumption of fossil energy and pollutants generated from their use [1], together with the rapid development of flexible and wearable electronics [2] and artificial intelligence, there is an urgent requirement to replace fossil fuels [3].Until now, various new sources of energy have been successfully demonstrated, including solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, nuclear, and mechanical energies [4]. Compared with inorganic piezoelectric materials, organic piezoelectric materials, such as poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and its copolymers, are preferable for wearable nanogenerators because of their naturally flexibility and biocompatibility, chemical stability, and easy synthesis [4,7]. They exhibit high purity, lightweight and resistance to chemical solvents and stability under high electric fields [8]. Availability of PVDF is sufficient for mass applications with a relatively low price [9] All these advantages are the main reasons for its more extensive application compared to that of other copolymers
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