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

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 27; no. 22
• Main Authors: Kim, Jihye, Lee, Jeong Hwan, Ryu, Hanjun, Lee, Ju‐Hyuck, Khan, Usman, Kim, Han, Kwak, Sung Soo, Kim, Sang‐Woo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 13-06-2017
• Subjects: Alignment; Charged particles; Computer simulation; Crystallinity; dipole alignment; Dipole moments; Electric potential; Electric power generation; Electronics; Energy consumption; Energy harvesting; Ferroelectric materials; Finite element method; Materials science; Nanogenerators; P(VDF‐TrFE); piezoelectric; Piezoelectricity; Polymers; pyroelectric; Solvents; triboelectric; Wearable technology
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201700702

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.
High‐performance piezoelectric‐, pyroelectric‐, and triboelectric‐nanogenerators‐based P(VDF‐TrFE) with controlled crystallinity and dipole alignment have been successfully demonstrated using a higher dipole moment solvent for higher crystallinity and better dipole alignment. Therefore, a higher dipole moment solvent enhances the piezoelectric coefficient, pyroelectric coefficient, and triboelectric property of P(VDF‐TrFE) and the power output performance of P(VDF‐TrFE)‐based piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and triboelectric nanogenerators.