Coral-like BaTiO3-Filled Polymeric Composites as Piezoelectric Nanogenerators for Movement Sensing

Yuhang Du; Gang Jian; Chen Zhang; Fengwei Wang

doi:10.3390/polym15153191

Coral-like BaTiO₃-Filled Polymeric Composites as Piezoelectric Nanogenerators for Movement Sensing

Polymers (Basel). 2023 Jul 27;15(15):3191. doi: 10.3390/polym15153191.

Authors

Yuhang Du¹, Gang Jian², Chen Zhang¹, Fengwei Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China.
² Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Electronic Materials, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.

Abstract

Piezoelectric nanogenerators have prospective uses for generating mechanical energy and powering electronic devices due to their high output and flexible behavior. In this research, the synthesis of the three-dimensional coral-like BaTiO₃ (CBT) and its filling into a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrix to obtain composites with excellent energy harvesting properties are reported. The CBT-based PENG has a 163 V voltage and a 16.7 µA current at a frequency of 4 Hz with 50 N compression. Simulations show that the high local stresses in the CBT coral branch structure are the main reason for the improved performance. The piezoelectric nanogenerator showed good durability at 5000 cycles, and 50 commercial light-emitting diodes were turned on. The piezoelectric nanogenerator generates a voltage of 4.68-12 V to capture the energy generated by the ball falling from different heights and a voltage of ≈0.55 V to capture the mechanical energy of the ball's movement as it passes. This study suggests a CBT-based piezoelectric nanogenerator for potential use in piezoelectric sensors that has dramatically improved energy harvesting characteristics.

Keywords: flexible; piezoelectric energy harvesting; polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF); three-dimensional coral-like BaTiO3.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873083), the Industry University Research Cooperation Project in Jiangsu Province (BY2020679, BY2022518), and the Graduate Practice and Innovation Projects in Jiangsu Province (SJCX22_1937).