Stretchable polymer composites with ultrahigh piezoelectric performance

Tongxiang Tang; Zhonghui Shen; Jian Wang; Shiqi Xu; Jiaxi Jiang; Jiahui Chang; Mengfan Guo; Youjun Fan; Yao Xiao; Zhihao Dong; Houbing Huang; Xiaoyan Li; Yihui Zhang; Danyang Wang; Long-Qing Chen; Ke Wang; Shujun Zhang; Ce-Wen Nan; Yang Shen

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwad177

Stretchable polymer composites with ultrahigh piezoelectric performance

Natl Sci Rev. 2023 Jun 22;10(8):nwad177. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwad177. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Authors

Tongxiang Tang¹, Zhonghui Shen², Jian Wang², Shiqi Xu³, Jiaxi Jiang⁴, Jiahui Chang^{4

5}, Mengfan Guo¹, Youjun Fan¹, Yao Xiao¹, Zhihao Dong¹, Houbing Huang³, Xiaoyan Li⁴, Yihui Zhang^{4

5}, Danyang Wang⁶, Long-Qing Chen⁷, Ke Wang¹, Shujun Zhang⁸, Ce-Wen Nan¹, Yang Shen^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Center of Smart Materials and Devices, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
³ Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
⁴ Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁵ Center for Flexible Electronics Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁶ School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia.
⁷ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16802, USA.
⁸ Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, Australian Institute for Innovative Materials, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia.

Abstract

Flexible piezoelectric materials capable of withstanding large deformation play key roles in flexible electronics. Ferroelectric ceramics with a high piezoelectric coefficient are inherently brittle, whereas polar polymers exhibit a low piezoelectric coefficient. Here we report a highly stretchable/compressible piezoelectric composite composed of ferroelectric ceramic skeleton, elastomer matrix and relaxor ferroelectric-based hybrid at the ceramic/matrix interface as dielectric transition layers, exhibiting a giant piezoelectric coefficient of 250 picometers per volt, high electromechanical coupling factor k_eff of 65%, ultralow acoustic impedance of 3MRyl and high cyclic stability under 50% compression strain. The superior flexibility and piezoelectric properties are attributed to the electric polarization and mechanical load transfer paths formed by the ceramic skeleton, and dielectric mismatch mitigation between ceramic fillers and elastomer matrix by the dielectric transition layer. The synergistic fusion of ultrahigh piezoelectric properties and superior flexibility in these polymer composites is expected to drive emerging applications in flexible smart electronics.

Keywords: flexible electronics; piezoelectric materials; polymer composites; structure design.