Enhanced Piezoelectric Properties of Electrospun Poly(vinylidene fluoride)/Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Composites Due to High β-Phase Formation in Poly(vinylidene fluoride)

Abstract

We prepared poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposites using the electrospinning process and investigated the effects of varying the MWCNT content, as well as the additional use of drawing and poling on the polymorphic behavior and electroactive (piezoelectric) properties of the membranes obtained. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and wide-angle X-ray diffraction revealed that dramatic changes occurred in the β-phase crystal formation with the MWCNT loading. This was attributed to the nucleation effects of the MWCNTs as well as the intense stretching of the PVDF jets in the electrospinning process. The remanent polarization and piezoelectric response increased with the amount of MWCNTs and piezoelectric β-phase crystals. A further mechanical stretching and electric poling process induced not only highly oriented β-phase crystallites, but also very good ferroelectric and piezoelectric performances. In the drawn samples, the interfacial interaction between the functional groups on the MWCNTs and the CF 2 dipole of PVDF chains produced a large amount of βphase content. In the poled samples, the incorporation of the MWCNTs made it easy to obtain efficient charge accumulation in the PVDF matrix, resulting in the conversion of the α-phase into the β-phase as well as the enhancement of remanent polarization and mechanical displacement.

(Na,K)NbO3 nanoparticle-embedded piezoelectric nanofiber composites for flexible nanogenerators

“…Since the average particle size of the NKN powder is ~58.4 nm, the region of the embedded NKN particles in the fiber may contain agglomerates of the particles. The intermittent positioning of the nanoparticles is a typical result when the electrospinning process of nanoparticle-involved solution is tried as similarly reported elsewhere[15,31].9 Fig. 5 shows the XRD patterns of the NKN/P(VDF-TrFE) composite nanofibers containing different amounts of NKN nanoparticles.…”

Size-dependent piezoelectric and mechanical properties of electrospun P(VDF-TrFE) nanofibers for enhanced energy harvesting

“…The electroactive content of the electrospun P(VDF-TrFE) fibers in this study (up to approximately 89%) exhibited a similar, or higher values than the reported values in literature. 9,16,40,42 Simultaneously, the decrease in fiber diameter resulted in an increase in the degree of crystallinity ( Fig. 8b and Fig.…”

“…Examples include polymer-based piezocomposite materials with inorganic piezoelectric materials 14,15 or multiwalled carbon nanotubes. 16 In spite of an equivalent contribution from E kj to the overall piezoelectric response, the mechanical aspects of piezoelectric materials are often neglected.…”

PVDF based Piezoelectric Nanogenerator as a new kind of device for generating power from renewable resources

“…There are several methods to obtain electroactive phases in PVDF .like mechanical stretching, poling, casting from solutions, spin coating, etc. Many researcher have also attempted to nucleate the electroactive phase within PVDF and improve the performance of the NG based sensor by incorporating graphene, gold nanoparticle, silver nanoparticle, nanoclay, CNTs, [45] PMMA-RGO composite, and can be possible to make it ultrasensitive . Due to unique mechanical, chemical, electrical and/or optical properties of these material, electroactive phase of PVDF can be easily accessable.…”