Screen Printing of Surface-Modified Barium Titanate/Polyvinylidene Fluoride Nanocomposites for High-Performance Flexible Piezoelectric Nanogenerators

Abstract

Piezoelectric energy harvesters are appealing for the improvement of wearable electronics, owing to their excellent mechanical and electrical properties. Herein, screen-printed piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) are developed from triethoxy(octyl)silane-coated barium titanate/polyvinylidene fluoride (TOS-BTO/PVDF) nanocomposites with excellent performance based on the important link between material, structure, and performance. In order to minimize the effect of nanofiller agglomeration, TOS-coated BTO nanoparticles are anchored onto PVDF. Thus, composites with well-distributed TOS-BTO nanoparticles exhibit fewer defects, resulting in reduced charge annihilation during charge transfer from inorganic nanoparticles to the polymer. Consequently, the screen-printed TOS-BTO/PVDF PENG exhibits a significantly enhanced output voltage of 20 V, even after 7500 cycles, and a higher power density of 15.6 μW cm−2, which is 200 and 150% higher than those of pristine BTO/PVDF PENGs, respectively. The increased performance of TOS-BTO/PVDF PENGs is due to the enhanced compatibility between nanofillers and polymers and the resulting improvement in dielectric response. Furthermore, as-printed devices could actively adapt to human movements and displayed excellent detection capability. The screen-printed process offers excellent potential for developing flexible and high-performance piezoelectric devices in a cost-effective and sustainable way.

Electroactive properties and piezo-tribo hybrid energy harvesting performances of PVDF-AlFeO3 composites: role of crystal symmetry and agglomeration of fillers

“…The obtained value of the output power density is comparable (even a bit higher) with that in some earlier reported works regarding PENGs. 49,51,52 This high value of the output power density from the AFRH5-based PENG confirms its ability to drive low-power-consuming electronic devices. For the proof of concept, the output electricity from this device was used to charge a commercial capacitor after rectification via a bridge rectifier IC (DB 107).…”

Boosting the Piezoelectric Response and Interfacial Compatibility in Flexible Piezoelectric Composites via DET-Doping BT Nanoparticles

“…However, these -OH peaks are disappeared in the spectra of DET–BTO. Instead, more pronounced IR absorption bands are detected at 2958 cm −1 and 2856 cm −1 , corresponding to the -CH 2 stretching vibrations within the DET shells [ 42 , 43 ]. The observed variations imply that their surfaces have undergone grafting with long carbon chain coupling agents and modification coating.…”

“…Video S2: The Change Of Wetting Angle. References [ 43 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ] are cited in the supplementary materials.…”

Tuning the Electromechanical Response of P(VDF-TrFE)/ZnSnO3-Based Binary Piezoelectric Composites for Biomechanical Energy-Harvesting and Self-Powered Mechanosensing

“…The maximum power density from this device has been found to be ∼70 μW/cm 2 , which is in the comparable range (even a bit high) with that of the previously reported PVDF-based PENGs. 20,61,75,76 In order to demonstrate the possibility of utilizing this high amount of output electricity in small electronic devices, the output voltage has been rectified by using a bridge rectifier IC (DB 107) and the rectified voltage has been used to charge a 1 μF commercial capacitor. As shown in Figure 8g, the device was able to charge the capacitor up to ∼4.6 V upon ∼300 s of continuous application of the input mechanical stimuli.…”