Three-Dimensional Printable Flexible Piezoelectric Composites with Energy Harvesting Features

Mihaela Aradoaei; Romeo C Ciobanu; Cristina Schreiner; Marius Paulet; Alina R Caramitu; Jana Pintea; Mihaela Baibarac

doi:10.3390/polym15112548

Three-Dimensional Printable Flexible Piezoelectric Composites with Energy Harvesting Features

Polymers (Basel). 2023 May 31;15(11):2548. doi: 10.3390/polym15112548.

Authors

Mihaela Aradoaei¹, Romeo C Ciobanu¹, Cristina Schreiner¹, Marius Paulet¹, Alina R Caramitu², Jana Pintea², Mihaela Baibarac³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical Measurements and Materials, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University, 700050 Iasi, Romania.
² National Institute for Research and Development in Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA, 030138 Bucharest, Romania.
³ National Institute of Materials Physics, Atomistilor Street 405A, P.O. Box MG-7, 077125 Bucharest, Romania.

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to obtain an elastic composite material from polymer powders (polyurethane and polypropylene) with the addition of BaTiO₃ until 35% with tailored dielectric and piezoelectric features. The filament extruded from the composite material was very elastic but had good features to be used for 3D printing applications. It was technically demonstrated that the 3D thermal deposition of composite filament with 35% BaTiO₃ was a convenient process for achieving tailored architectures to be used as devices with functionality as piezoelectric sensors. Finally, the functionality of such 3D printable flexible piezoelectric devices with energy harvesting features was demonstrated, which can be used in various biomedical devices (as wearable electronics or intelligent prosthesis), generating enough energy to make such devices completely autonomous only by exploiting body movements at variable low frequencies.

Keywords: 3D printable flexible piezoelectric devices; energy harvesting; flexible composites with piezoelectric features.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a publication grant from Technical Univ. Iasi, and it was based on the joint experimental research of participating organizations, partially financed by a grant (4DPrintEN) under COFUND-ERANET MANUNET III, including the contribution of the Spanish company IZERTIS, which technically modified and updated a specialized 3D printer for the project purpose.