Porosity Modulated High-Performance Piezoelectric Nanogenerator Based on Organic/Inorganic Nanomaterials for Self-Powered Structural Health Monitoring

Md Masud Rana; Asif Abdullah Khan; Guangguang Huang; Nanqin Mei; Resul Saritas; Boyu Wen; Steven Zhang; Peter Voss; Eihab Abdel-Rahman; Zoya Leonenko; Shariful Islam; Dayan Ban

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c12874

Porosity Modulated High-Performance Piezoelectric Nanogenerator Based on Organic/Inorganic Nanomaterials for Self-Powered Structural Health Monitoring

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Oct 21;12(42):47503-47512. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c12874. Epub 2020 Oct 8.

Authors

Md Masud Rana^{1

2}, Asif Abdullah Khan^{1

2}, Guangguang Huang^{1

2}, Nanqin Mei³, Resul Saritas⁴, Boyu Wen^{1

2}, Steven Zhang², Peter Voss⁵, Eihab Abdel-Rahman⁴, Zoya Leonenko³, Shariful Islam⁵, Dayan Ban^{1

2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
³ Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
⁴ Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
⁵ Shimco North America Inc., 75 Heroux Devtek Dr, Cambridge, Ontario N3E 0A7, Canada.
⁶ School of Physics and Electronics, Henan University, No. 1 Jinming Street, Kaifeng, Henan 475001, P. R. China.

PMID: 32969216
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c12874

Abstract

In the modern era, structural health monitoring (SHM) is critically important and indispensable in the aerospace industry as an effective measure to enhance the safety and consistency of aircraft structures by deploying a reliable sensor network. The deployment of built-in sensor networks enables uninterrupted structural integrity monitoring of an aircraft, providing crucial information on operation condition, deformation, and potential damage to the structure. Sustainable and durable piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) with good flexibility, high performance, and superior reliability are promising candidates for powering wireless sensor networks, particularly for aerospace SHM applications. This research demonstrates a self-powered wireless sensing system based on a porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based PENG, which is prominently anticipated for developing auto-operated sensor networks. Our reported porous PVDF film is made from a flexible piezoelectric polymer (PVDF) and inorganic zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles. The fabricated porous PVDF-based PENG demonstrates ∼11 times and ∼8 times enhancement of output current and voltage, respectively, compared to a pure PVDF-based PENG. The porous PVDF-based PENG can produce a peak-to-peak short-circuit current of 22 μA, a peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage of 84.5 V, a peak output power of 0.46 mW $(P = \frac{V_{oc}}{2} \times \frac{I_{sc}}{2})$ , and a peak output power density of 41.02 μW/cm² (P/A). By harnessing energy from minute vibrations, the fabricated porous PVDF-based PENG device (area of A = 11.33 cm²) can generate sufficient electrical energy to power up a customized wireless sensing and communication unit and transfer sensor data every ∼4 min. The PENG can generate sufficient electrical energy from an automobile car vibration, which reflects the scenario of potential real-life SHM systems. We anticipate that this high-performance porous PVDF-based PENG can act as a reliable power source for the sensor networks in aircraft, which minimizes potential safety risks.

Keywords: energy harvesting; organic/inorganic nanomaterials; piezoelectric nanogenerator; structural health monitoring; wireless sensing network.