Enhanced piezoelectric performance of ZnSnO3@PVDF composite films by control of embedded contents of ZnSnO3 nanoparticles

Abstract

We report on ZnSnO3 (ZTO) nanoparticles embedded polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite (ZTO@PVDF) film-based piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs). To fabricate the PENG devices, the ZTO nanocubes (NCs) with an average side length of 910 nm were synthesized by the ethanol precipitation method and they were mixed with PVDF with different embedded contents ranging from 0 to 40 wt%. The PENG with 30 wt% ZTO@PVDF showed the highest output performance with an open circuit voltage of 160 V, short circuit current of 2.04 μA and power density of 36.27 μW/cm2 under 0.27 MPa mechanical force. The accelerated crystallization of β phase in PVDF by the strong Coulombic forces of ZTO nanoparticles with PVDF chains significantly improved the energy harvesting values compared to previously reported perovskite-PVDF PENGs. The enhanced piezoelectric performances by ZTO NCs in PVDF was confirmed by COMSOL simulation and it showed that the maximum piezoelectric performance of PENGs was achieved with the 30 wt% ZTO nanoparticles embedded in the PVDF composites. In terms of applications, we demonstrated with the lighting of 120 LEDs and operation of a temperature timer with ZTO@PVDF PENGs. Our suggested flexible PENGs with ZTO NCs mediated β phase nucleation technology of PVDF will be adopted to a promising mechanical energy harvesting and self-powered wearable sources and wireless device application.