High‐Performance Piezoelectric, Pyroelectric, and Triboelectric Nanogenerators Based on P(VDF‐TrFE) with Controlled Crystallinity and Dipole Alignment

Abstract

Poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)), as a ferroelectric polymer, offers great promise for energy harvesting for flexible and wearable applications. Here, this paper shows that the choice of solvent used to dissolve the polymer significantly influences its properties in terms of energy harvesting. Indeed, the P(VDF-TrFE) prepared using a high dipole moment solvent has higher piezoelectric and pyroelectric coefficients and triboelectric property. Such improvements are the result of higher crystallinity and better dipole alignment of the polymer prepared using a higher dipole moment solvent. Finite element method simulations confirm that the higher dipole moment results in higher piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and triboelectric potential distributions. Furthermore, P(VDF-TrFE)-based piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and triboelectric nanogenerators (NGs) experimentally validate that the higher dipole moment solvent significantly enhances the power output performance of the NGs; the improvement is about 24% and 82% in output voltage and current, respectively, for piezoelectric NG; about 40% and 35% in output voltage and current, respectively, for pyroelectric NG; and about 65% and 75% in output voltage and current for triboelectric NG. In brief, the approach of using a high dipole moment solvent is very promising for high output P(VDF-TrFE)-based wearable NGs.The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under http://dx.

Modulation of surface physics and chemistry in triboelectric energy harvesting technologies

“…In addition to electrical poling method, applying a high dipole moment solvent can be another way to align dipoles in contact materials. The end-to-end chain length and the dipole alignment were enhanced by a high dipole moment solvent such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), as indicated in Figure 8(e) [121]. Hence, the P(VDF-TrFE) polymer dissolved in the DMSO had a relatively high charge-accepting ability, leading to the output enhancement of triboelectric energy harvesters.…”

Sustainable hybrid energy harvester based on air stable quantum dot solar cells and triboelectric nanogenerator

“…CTFE was employed because the CTFE exhibits high mechanical stability and excellent energy harvesting performance at wide-range of frequencies. 14,25,26 The top image of the Figure 1 Because the TENG and QDSCs are assembled in a vertical manner to maximize an active area of each device in order to generate higher current and potential, light transmittance of the TENG is one of the important criteria. Figure 1(e) shows that a transmittance of the TENG (a β-phase CTFE layer on a graphene electrode) is approximately 95%, 30,31 which suggests that most of photon energy will reach to PbS QD layers.…”

Recent development of the triboelectric properties of the polymer: A review

“…Over the past several decades, the development of polymer properties has been studied and many key elements that improve polymer properties have been researched [63]. Kim et al reported that the ferroelectric properties and TENG performance improved by increasing the crystallinity of the ferroelectric polymer [64]. The ferroelectric polymers were one of the most promising candidates for triboelectric layers because they had inherent properties that could be changed from negative to positive by a poling process.…”