Development of a piezoelectric nanogenerator based on mesoporous silica/zinc oxide hybrid nanocomposite fibres

Abstract

The current research paper presents an investigation of the piezoelectric performances of five different polyvinylidene fluoride hexafluoropropylene (PHP) systems fabricated by electrospinning. Morphological and structural analyses of neat PHP, PHP/zinc oxide 1% (PHP-Z), PHP/mesoporous silica 1% (PHP-M), PHP/ZnO-mesoporous silica at 1 wt.% (PHP-MZ1), and PHP/ZnO-mesoporous silica at 3 wt% (PHP-MZ3) were carried out systematically by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The microscopic analysis results show the formation of uniform ZnO nanoflakes of approximately 5 nm in diameter, whereas mesoporous silica particles form a uniform spherical structure with a typical diameter of 5 μm. Elemental analysis by EDX spectra confirms the presence of Zn, O, and Si in the prepared nanocomposites. The crystalline β-phase of PHP in the Fourier transformation infrared spectra rises with the addition of ZnO and mesoporous silica particles to the polymer matrix. Neat polyvinylidene fluoride has the most intense XRD peak in comparison to all other polymer nanocomposites. The fabricated flexible nanogenerator obtained from the 1% ZnO-mesoporous silica nanocomposite shows an output voltage of 2 V, whereas the nanogenerator prepared using the neat PHP sample exhibits an output voltage of ~120 mV. All of the results indicate that the 1% ZnO-mesoporous silica PHP nanocomposite is suitable for constructing low-powered wearable self-driven electrical devices.