Gravure Printing for PVDF Thin-Film Pyroelectric Device Manufacture

Abstract

Pyroelectric energy harvesting is one of the more recent and promising solid-state approaches for directly converting time-dependent temperature fluctuations into electric energy. Conventional printing technologies can offer many advantages for the production of pyroelectric thin-film-based devices, such as low cost, low temperature, the use of flexible substrates and shaping at the same time as deposition. Nevertheless, some issues related to low printed thickness and film-forming microstructure control need to be addressed. In this exploratory study, the possibility of exploiting the highly attractive gravure printing process for the potential industrial manufacture of flexible polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) thin-film pyroelectric devices was investigated. By the use of corona pre-treatment of the printing substrate and low-temperature polar solvent evaporation, multilayer gravure-printed PVDF pyroelectric devices were successfully manufactured for the first time, achieving a maximum generated current of 0.1 nA at 2.5 K/s from a device with an active area of 1 cm2. Considering the very low thermal inertia and performance scaling by the area expected for pyroelectric thin-film-based devices, combined with the upscaling potential of roll-to-roll gravure printing, our results provide new opportunities for on-demand, low-cost pyroelectric device manufacture and their integration in hybrid harvesters.

The Influence of the Gravure Printing Quality on the Layer Functionality: The Study Case of LFP Cathode for Li-Ion Batteries

“…At low Ca, the pattern fidelity can be degraded by the ink drag-out from the cells, while at high Ca, ineffective doctoring can leave the ink in the non-engraved areas. Typically, the optimal compromise is achieved by adjusting the ink parameters and the printing speed to attain a Ca ≈ 1, but deviations could be considered since the final printing quality depends on the complicated interplay of all the involved parameters [6,7,13,21]. However, it is not obvious that such a fluid-dynamic criterion of graphic print quality can simply be applied to functional materials for the fabrication of functional layers.…”

Direct Ink Writing for Electrochemical Device Fabrication: A Review of 3D-Printed Electrodes and Ink Rheology

“…Nonetheless, PVdF and similar polymerbased materials have very low ionic and thermal conductivities, meaning that they cannot be used extensively in electrode construction, and so various synthesis methods should be explored for fabricating electrode/electrolyte architectures with the desired properties (high conductivity, very low resistance, etc.) [93]. On the contrary to conventional methods that lack control over architectural constructions, the DIW process overcomes these challenges, providing an opportunity to manufacture new architectures and diverse shapes with great material flexibility.…”

Smart and Multifunctional Materials Based on Electroactive Poly(vinylidene fluoride): Recent Advances and Opportunities in Sensors, Actuators, Energy, Environmental, and Biomedical Applications

“…In addition to conventional processing techniques, PVDF has also been processed by additive manufacturing techniques (Figure 3) such as direct-ink-writing (DIW), 65 roll-to-roll printing/coating processes, 66 among others, which are of low fabrication cost.…”