We report the effects of various substrates and substrate thicknesses on electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-nanofiber-based energy harvesters. The electrospun PVDF nanofibers showed an average diameter of 84.6 ± 23.5 nm. A high relative β-phase fraction (85.2%) was achieved by applying high voltage during electrospinning. The prepared PVDF nanofibers thus generated considerable piezoelectric potential in accordance with the sound-driven mechanical vibrations of the substrates. Slide glass, poly(ethylene terephthalate), poly(ethylene naphthalate), and paper substrates were used to investigate the effects of the intrinsic and extrinsic substrate properties on the piezoelectricity of the energy harvesters. The thinnest paper substrate (66 μm) with a moderate Young's modulus showed the highest voltage output (0.4885 V). We used high-performance 76, 66, and 33 μm thick papers to determine the effect of paper thickness on the output voltage. The thinnest paper substrate resulted in the highest voltage output (0.7781 V), and the numerical analyses of the sound-driven mechanical deformation strongly support the hypothesis that substrate thickness has a considerable effect on piezoelectric performance.
A hybrid architecture consisting of an inverted organic photovoltaic device and a randomly-oriented electrospun PVDF piezoelectric device was fabricated as a highly-efficient energy generator. It uses the inverted photovoltaic device with coupled electrospun PVDF nanofibers as tandem structure to convert solar and mechanical vibrations energy to electricity simultaneously or individually. The power conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic device was also significantly improved up to 4.72% by optimized processes such as intrinsic ZnO, MoO3 and active layer. A simple electrospinning method with the two electrode technique was adopted to achieve a high voltage of - 300 mV in PVDF piezoelectric fibers. Highly-efficient HEG using voltage adder circuit provides the conceptual possibility of realizing multi-functional energy generator whenever and wherever various energy sources are available.
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