Effective electromechanical properties and energy harvesting response in PMN-0.3PT/PDMS flexible piezoelectric composites: a combined experimental and theoretical study

Abstract

Present work designs and develops lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-0.3PT) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based flexible piezoelectric-polymer composites for efficient mechanical energy harvesting through a combined experimental-theoretical approach. Solid-state reaction method was employed to synthesize PMN-0.3PT piezo-ceramic, which was subsequently used for the fabrication of vr-PMN-0.3PT/PDMS piezoelectric-polymer 0-3 composite with different volume fractions, vr = 0.03, 0.25, and 0.50 of PMN-0.3PT reinforcement. Uniformly distributed PMN-0.3PT particles were found to retain their structural symmetry across the volume fractions and are well adhered to the PDMS matrix. The- effective electromechanical properties of the composites were measured and compared with model predictions employing the finite element method and Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka (EMT) based micromechanical models. Considering that flexibility is a critical design parameter, we propose a new figure of-merit term- that would consider both electromechanical conversion as well as mechanical flexibility of the material. We show that vr = 0.5, PMN-0.3PT/PDMS 0-3 composite yields an optimum combination of energy harvesting performance and flexibility. Our study further demonstrates that the orientation of the PMN-0.3PT particles does not significantly influence the effective elastic and dielectric properties at low and moderate PMN-PT content, attributed to the lower aspect ratio of the reinforcement particles. The piezoelectric charge coefficient showed small yet finite change with increasing reinforcement content. A maximum current density, 35 nA/cm2, and electric field, 90 V/cm was obtained with cyclic compressive stress of 0.22 MPa (Force, 50 N) at 5 Hz, in a piezoelectric generator based on vr = 0.5.

Castor‐oil derived polyurethane/barium titanate piezoelectric smart composite coatings for energy harvesting applications: Prediction and experimental characterization of electro‐elastic properties

“…Energy harvesting performance of the poled CPBT fabricated films were characterized using an indigenously designed facility by application of a cyclic compressive load at a frequency of 1 Hz with the help of an Arduino‐operated stepper motor 51 . Current and voltage measurement were done in response to applied compressive loads of 5 N, 10 N, 20 N, and 40 N. For current–voltage measurements, a high‐resistance electrometer (Keithley 6517B) was employed.…”

High Energy Harvesting Performance in Piezoelectric Composite Films Employing Large Piezoelectric Fillers and Interface Engineering

“…Schematics showing PDMS/piezoelectric composite films based on (a) primitive large piezoelectric particles and (b) PDA-modified piezoelectric particles. (c) Composition of energy harvesting properties (short current and open voltage) under unit force between previous PDMS/piezoelectric composite films and this work based on PDA-modified piezoelectric particles with large particle sizes. − …”

“…The employed piezoelectric fillers in flexible composite films include typical lead-based piezoelectric materials [e.g., Pb(Zr, Ti)O 3 (PZT)], − lead-free piezoelectric materials [ZnO, BaTiO 3 (BT), Bi 0.5 Na 0.5 TiO 3 , (K, Na)NbO 3 , BiFeO 3 , etc. ], − and some other piezoelectric-like materials (ZnSnO 3 , ZnTiO 3 , Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 , Bi 2 WO 6 , AlFeO 3 , etc.…”