A Facile Strategy to Achieve High Piezoelectric Performance in Electrospun Poly(Vinylidene Fluoride) Non-woven Nanofabrics

Abstract

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) with its piezoelectric characteristics holds the potential to be the promising candidate in microdevices, sensors and actuators. In this study, a facile strategy was adopted to augment the electroactive β-phase of electrospun PVDF non-woven nanofabric. Electrospun PVDF non-woven fabric was mechanically stretched at different strain rates. SEM images revealed that upon stretching the non-woven fabric, the fibers tend to orient along the stretching direction. The fibers from the necked region were characterized to understand effect of stretching on the polymorphism, crystallinity and piezoelectric performance. The β-phase content of PVDF increased upon increasing the strain rate, while the degree of crystallinity decreased slightly. The highest β-phase content of 79% was achieved for electrospun PVDF non-woven fabric stretched at 10 mm/min. Further, the piezoelectric performance of the stretched nanofabric was evaluated to assess its electroactive characteristics. The piezoelectric performance of electrospun PVDF fabric was studied by imparting the pressure/load by one-finger tapping, hand pressure and dropping weight. The highest output voltage and current of 8.4 V and 249 nA, respectively were obtained from the electrospun PVDF non-woven stretched at 10 mm/min, which is almost 8 times higher than that of the unstretched PVDF non-woven. Given the flexibility, lightweight with good piezoelectric performance these electrospun PVDF non-woven fabrics could be a potential material for energy harvesting and self-powered nano-electronic devices. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.) © The Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers 2023.