Piezoelectric property investigation on PVDF/ZrO2/ZnO nanocomposite for energy harvesting application

Abstract

Recent days, considerable research efforts have been emphasized on the development of lightweight, portable, shock resistance, and flexible wearable devices that are powered by harvesting energy from abundant mechanical forces or vibrational energy. In this paper, we report piezoelectric nanogenerator (PNG) based on poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/Zirconium oxide (ZrO2)/Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocomposite. The addition of nanofillers significantly affects the structural property of PVDF, and their addition helps in the improvement of the piezoelectric property. The PNGs are fabricated and tested under various stress conditions (at different loads, tapping and walking). The hybrid PVDF/5% ZrO2/5%ZnO nanogenerator showed a maximum peak to peak voltage (Vpp) of 3.2 V, which is nearly eight times more than pristine PVDF nanogenerator. A prototype of shoe pad nanogenerator is demonstrated as an application. © 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd. © International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing.