Piezoelectric materials have been in use for many years; however, with an increasing concern about global warming, piezoelectricity has gained significant importance in research and development for extracting energy from the environment. In this work the voltage responses of ceramic based piezoelectric fibre composite structures (PFCs) and polymer based piezoelectric strips, PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride), were evaluated when subjected to various wind speeds and water droplets in order to investigate the possibility of energy generation from these two natural renewable energy sources for utilization in low power electronic devices. The effects of material dimensions, drop mass, releasing height of the drops and wind speed on the voltage output were studied and the power was calculated. This work showed that piezoelectric polymer materials can generate higher voltage/power than ceramic based piezoelectric materials and it was proved that producing energy from renewable sources such as rain drops and wind is possible by using piezoelectric polymer materials.

No abstract

No abstract

Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Is Not Inherently Piezoelectric however Non-Piezoelectric α-Crystal Form of the Polymer Can Be Transform to Piezoelectric β-Crystal Form by Application of High Drawing Ratio, Heat and High DC Voltage. in this Work, some Mechanical Tests, such as Linear Density, Tenacity, Elongation%, Were Carried Out to Comparatively Investigate both Poled and Unpoled PVDF Filaments which Were Produced via a Continuous Process in a Customized Melt Extruder. the Voltage Responses of Poled and Unpoled Filaments Were Also Investigated under a Standard Impact Test Ring. These Filaments Were then Studied under Semi Electron Microscopy (SEM) for their Micro Structural Analysis.

Poled poly(vinylidene fluoride), PVDF, is a well known polymeric material which has a larger piezoelectric coefficient compared to any other polymer that exhibits the piezoelectric effect. In this work, we have investigated the voltage response to a mechanical stimulus of PVDF based piezoelectric films in vacuum and at various temperatures by using a vacuum oven. To determine the effect of vacuum and the temperature change on the voltage generation, PVDF films were first investigated at ambient conditions then their voltage generation was also studied in vacuum (75 cm Hg below atmospheric pressure) at various temperatures in the range of room temperature to 90 °C. The results show that the influence of applied vacuum on voltage generated by the PVDF based films was more significant than the influence of the variation of temperature used in this study.