High Performance Electrospun Ba0.7Ca0.3TiO3 Nanofibers/ (PVDF-HFP+ rGO) Based Flexible Polymer Nanocomposite for Piezoelectric Nanogenerators

Abstract

The increased use of wearable small electronic devices and the internet of things (IoTs) have drawn significant interest for the development of portable energy harvesting devices. These smart electronic devices typically need an input power ranging from μW to mW. Although batteries can provide consistent input power but due to its disadvantages such as short lifespan, toxic nature, it is not preferred. Energy harvesting from various energy sources such as wind, solar, mechanical vibration (freely available in the environment), is one of the most effective ways to deal with these problems. The use of mechanical energy among the various forms of energy freely available to power small-scale electrical devices has not been widely investigated. One of the suitable approaches to harvest mechanical energy is to integrate nanogenerator (NG) into electronic devices for powering these electronic gadgets. In view of this, we have prepared flexible PVDF-HFP based polymer nanocomposite with addition of Ba0.7Ca0.3TiO3 nano fibres (BCT NFs) as well as 1.5 wt.% rGO (optimised concentration) having general formula: (PVDF-HFP + 1.5 wt% rGO) + ϕ wt% BCT NFs (ϕ = 5 ,10 ,15, 20, 25, 30) by solution casting method. The XRD patterns confirm the successful formation of polymer nano composite. XRD & FTIR results indicates that with the increase in BCT NFs the electroactive β phase fraction increases and it is found to be maximum for ϕ = 15 wt.%. The dielectric constant of pure PVDF-HFP is found to be around 9 and its value increases to 35 (with tan δ < 0.01) at a frequency of 10 kHz for ϕ = 15 wt.%. The nanocomposite