Phase-Separation-Induced PVDF/Graphene Coating on Fabrics toward Flexible Piezoelectric Sensors

Tao Huang; Siwei Yang; Peng He; Jing Sun; Shuai Zhang; Dongdong Li; Yan Meng; Jiushun Zhou; Huixia Tang; Junrui Liang; Guqiao Ding; Xiaoming Xie

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b10552

Phase-Separation-Induced PVDF/Graphene Coating on Fabrics toward Flexible Piezoelectric Sensors

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Sep 12;10(36):30732-30740. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b10552. Epub 2018 Aug 29.

Authors

Tao Huang^{1

2}, Siwei Yang^{1

2}, Peng He^{1

2}, Jing Sun^{2

3}, Shuai Zhang⁴, Dongdong Li^{2

3}, Yan Meng^{2

3}, Jiushun Zhou^{1

2}, Huixia Tang^{1

2}, Junrui Liang⁴, Guqiao Ding^{1

2}, Xiaoming Xie^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Excellence in Superconducting Electronics (CENSE), State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT) , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Shanghai 200050 , P. R. China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049 , P. R. China.
³ Research Center of Quantum Macro-Phenomenon and Application, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Shanghai 201210 , P. R. China.
⁴ Mechatronics and Energy Transformation Laboratory, School of Information Science and Technology , ShanghaiTech University , Shanghai 201210 , P. R. China.

PMID: 30124290
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b10552

Abstract

Clothing-integrated piezoelectric sensors possess great potential for future wearable electronics. In this paper, we reported a phase-separation approach to fabricate flexible piezoelectric sensors based on poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/graphene composite coating on commercially available fabrics (PVDF/graphene@F). The structural units of -CH₂- and -CF₂- of PVDF chains were arranged directionally due to the structural induction of graphene and water during phase separation, which is the key for electroactive phase enrichment. In optimized case, integrating into fabric substrates endows the phase-out PVDF/graphene composite coating 4 times higher voltage output than its film counterpart. Piezoelectric sensor based on PVDF/graphene@F exhibits a sensitivity of 34 V N^-1, which is higher than many reports. It also shows low detecting threshold (0.6 mN), which can be applied to distinguish the voices or monitor the motion of body. This simple and effective approach toward PVDF/graphene@F with excellent flexibility provides a promising route toward the development of wearable piezoelectric sensors.

Keywords: PVDF; fabric; graphene; piezoelectric materials; sensors.