Investigation of piezoelectric nanogenerator based ZnSnO3@PVDF composite films

Abstract

In this study, I 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 with an average side length of 910nm were synthesized by ethanol precipitation method and they were mixed with PVDF with different embedded contents ranging from 0 to 40wt%. The PENG with 30wt% 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/cm〗^2 under 0.27MPa mechanical force. The accelerated crystallization of the β phase in PVDF by strong coulomb forces of ZTO nanoparticles with PVDF chains significantly improves the energy harvesting values compared to previously reported perovskite-PVDF based on PENGs. The enhanced piezoelectric performances by ZTO nanocubes in PVDF were confirmed by COMSOL simulation and it showed that the maximum piezoelectric performance of PENGs was achieved with 30wt% ZTO nanoparticles embedded in PVDF composites. In terms of applications, we demonstrated lighting up 120 LEDs and working of a temperature timer with ZTO@PVDF PENGs. Our suggested flexible PENGs with ZTO nanocubes mediated β phase nucleation technology of PVDF will be adopted to a promising mechanical energy harvesting and self-power wearable sources and wireless device application.