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Piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) that can harvest mechanical energy from ambient environment have broad prospects for multi-functional applications. Here, multi-layered piezoelectric composites with a porous structure based on highly oriented Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3/PVDF (PZT/PVDF) electrospinning fibers are prepared via a laminating method to construct high-performance PENGs. PZT particles as piezoelectric reinforcing phases are embedded in PVDF fibers and facilitate the formation of polar β phase in PVDF. The multi-layered, porous structure effectively promotes the overall polarization and surface bound charge density, resulting in a highly efficient electromechanical conversion. The PENG based on 10 wt% PZT/PVDF composite fibers with a 220 µm film thickness outputs an optimal voltage of 62.0 V and a power of 136.9 μW, which are 3.4 and 6.5 times those of 10 wt% PZT/PVDF casting film-based PENG, respectively. Importantly, the PENG shows a high sensitivity of 12.4 V·N-1, presenting a significant advantage in comparison to PENGs with other porous structures. In addition, the composites show excellent flexibility with a Young’s modulus of 227.2 MPa and an elongation of 262.3%. This study shows a great potential application of piezoelectric fiber composites in flexible energy harvesting devices.


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Porous, multi-layered piezoelectric composites based on highly oriented PZT/PVDF electrospinning fibers for high-performance piezoelectric nanogenerators

Show Author's information Xiangxin DUZheng ZHOUZhao ZHANGLiqin YAOQilong ZHANG( )Hui YANG
School of Materials Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

Abstract

Piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) that can harvest mechanical energy from ambient environment have broad prospects for multi-functional applications. Here, multi-layered piezoelectric composites with a porous structure based on highly oriented Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3/PVDF (PZT/PVDF) electrospinning fibers are prepared via a laminating method to construct high-performance PENGs. PZT particles as piezoelectric reinforcing phases are embedded in PVDF fibers and facilitate the formation of polar β phase in PVDF. The multi-layered, porous structure effectively promotes the overall polarization and surface bound charge density, resulting in a highly efficient electromechanical conversion. The PENG based on 10 wt% PZT/PVDF composite fibers with a 220 µm film thickness outputs an optimal voltage of 62.0 V and a power of 136.9 μW, which are 3.4 and 6.5 times those of 10 wt% PZT/PVDF casting film-based PENG, respectively. Importantly, the PENG shows a high sensitivity of 12.4 V·N-1, presenting a significant advantage in comparison to PENGs with other porous structures. In addition, the composites show excellent flexibility with a Young’s modulus of 227.2 MPa and an elongation of 262.3%. This study shows a great potential application of piezoelectric fiber composites in flexible energy harvesting devices.

Keywords: porous structure, piezoelectric composite, piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG), Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PZT), PZT/PVDF electrospinning fibers, flexible self-powered devices

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Publication history

Received: 06 May 2021
Revised: 08 September 2021
Accepted: 20 September 2021
Published: 11 January 2022
Issue date: February 2022

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© The Author(s) 2021.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51772267) and the Key R&D Program of Zhejiang Province (No. 2020C01004).

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