A hybrid piezoelectric composite flexible film based on PVDF-HFP for boosting power generation

Abstract Nowadays, the development of sustainable and wearable energy harvesters is gaining an increasing interest. Herein, an approach used to develop a high performance flexible nanogenerator based on hybrid piezoelectric composite is reported. The approach consists first of employing solution mixing method with different solvents to determine the suitable solvent for achieving higher piezoelectric property of the piezoceramic polymer composites. Then, integration of conductive silver nanoparticles is done to boost the performance of the nanogenerator (NG). Different aspects are considered which are the homogeneity of particles distribution within PVDF-HFP and the crystallinity of the composite using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). This study demonstrates the efficiency of dimethyl formamide (DMF) solvent to increase the rate of crystalline phases due to their moderate evaporation rate and their high dipole moment that leads to enhanced piezoelectric performance. This approach proves its effectiveness to strengthen the piezoelectric performance especially by doping with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). The composite exhibits improved output voltage around 2.21 V and an output power of 0.22 μW, which are, respectively, around three times and 9 times higher than the composite without Ag NPs. In addition, the NG shows good stability over 900 cycles illustrating their robustness. The followed approach extends the performance limits of PVDF-HFP based NGs and their potential applications. Also, we have proved the potential of the optimized NG to harvest mechanical energy from human activities, with ability to generate around 3.56 V by striking with a palm hand.