Flexible lead-free piezoelectric polymer composite nanogenerator with enhanced crystallinity

Abstract

With the further growth of the Internet of things (IoT), flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) are extensively gaining attention due to the possibility to harvest wasted mechanical energy to power electronics and nano systems. In this context, lead-free composite was used to fabricate nanogenerators (NGs) via solution mixing method. The effect of the used solvent and the concentration of the BaTiO3 particles on the crystallinity structure and the quality of composite were deeply investigated using X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in addition to the piezoelectric performance. The study shows that composites dissolved in N, N, dimethylformamide (DMF) exhibit better performance comparing to those dissolved in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). The nanogenerator prepared with 20 wt. % BaTiO3 and dissolved in DMF solvent possesses the highest output voltage around 1.02 V and output power around 32 n W because of the increased crystallinity in comparison to other samples which are dominated by the presence of a-phase. These results indicate that NGs based on PVDF-HFP/BaTiO3 can be useful for flexible and wearable self-powered electrical devices and systems.