Enhancing piezoelectricity of poly(vinylidene fluoride) nano‐wrapped yarns with an innovative yarn electrospinning technique

Abstract Piezoelectric textiles have earned widespread acceptance in the application of wearable sensors owing to the stabilized energy conversion properties, high sensitivities and steady mechanical properties. In this study, silver‐coated nylon yarns are used as a core with poly(vinylidene fluoride) nanofibers as a wrap material, forming piezoelectric wrapped yarns. The effect of spinning process parameters on the structure and crystallinity of the piezoelectric yarn is investigated through studying the mechanical properties, β ‐phase ratio, crystallinity and piezoelectric properties. The results indicate that the crystallinity of the wrapped yarn reaches 49.57% in this experiment, and when used for piezoelectricity, the piezoelectric voltage constant can reach up to 0.4323 mV m N −1 . The wrapped yarns possess good softness and structural advantages of the sensing layer and thus show a great variety of application potential, such as in wearable and flexible sensors. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry