UNVEILING THE ROLE OF PVDF AND ITS COPOLYMER ON THE OUTPUT PERFORMANCE OF THE PIEZOELECTRIC NANOGENERATOR

Abstract

Herein, we have systematically investigated the impact of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its copolymer on the piezoelectric properties of the nanogenerator. For this, PVDF, polyvinylidene fluoride-cotrifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE), and polyvinylidene fluoride-cohexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) films were synthesized by drop casting method, and their piezoelectric response was analyzed. The experimental results show that the PVDF-TrFE films-based nanogenerator outperforms all other fabricated nanogenerators in terms of piezoelectric performance. In comparison to other polymers, PVDF-TrFE has a maximum output voltage (VOC) and short circuit current (ISC) of 23.6 V and 3.7 µA, respectively. This enhanced performance of PVDF-TrFE-based PENG is attributed to the highest β-phase in comparison to PVDF and PVDF-HFP. For potential application, the PVDF-TrFE film based PENG was demonstrated to harvest energy from the human body movements, and the energy is also stored by charging a 1µF capacitor. This study contributes to the fundamental understanding of PVDF-based materials for mechanical energy harvesting applications, thereby, paving the way for advancements in self-powered systems.