Enhancing Piezoelectric Properties of Pvdf Tree-Like Nanofiber Membrane with Silver Nanoparticle Incorporation

Electrospinning PVDF fiber membrane has a wide range of applications in the fields of environment, energy sensors and biomedical therapy. In this paper, by adding organic branching salt (TBAHP) and AgNO3 to the spinning solution, the tree-like nanofiber membrane was biomimetically prepared by one-step electrospinning technology. The introduction of TBAHP induced the formation of tree-like structure. The tree-like nanofiber membrane (TLNM) was composed of coarse trunk fibers (50~500 nm) and fine branch fibers (5~50 nm), which greatly improved the β phase content in PVDF and the mechanical properties of the material. In addition, silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) was synthesized in the spinning solution by chemical reduction method. The addition of Ag NPs not only enhanced the polar β and γ piezoelectric phases in PVDF, but also enhanced the polarized electric field intensity as a conductive phase, so that the piezoelectric effect of PVDF was fully brought into play. The results showed that the short-circuit current of 0.75Ag -TLNM reached 3.54 μA and the voltage output was 8.62V, which was 10.1 times and 5.9 times higher than that of pure PVDF NM, respectively. The prepared piezoelectric nanofiber composites had the potential to be used in wearable electronics and energy harvesting systems.