Formulation and rheological characterization of piezoelectric nanofluids

Abstract

We introduced a novel concept on energy harvesting nanofluids of hybrid piezoelectric ceramic and polymeric (BaTiO3 and PVdF) materials in PDMS. Rheology, rheo-microscope and impedance spectroscopy complementary enabled the elucidation of the development of microstructure and probing the flow-induced structural transitions. Percolated CNTs enhanced the network mechanically and electrically and improved the output voltage (OV). Traces of PVdF further increased the OV to ca. 7.5 V in their hybrid suspensions.