Smart and Robust Nanocomposite Fibers for Self-Powering

Abstract

Many of the devices, demands power sources for their continuous and long-term operations, self-powering devices with good flexibility, mechanical robustness, highly efficient energy storage performance and environmental friendliness are investigated. Polyvinylidene fluoride hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) is used as the base polymer in our study. Hybrid combination of nanoparticles -iron oxide (FeO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) is used to reinforce with the polymer and the electrospinning method was adopted for the sample preparation. This specific method helps the polymer dipoles to align in specific directions so that the resultant fibers exhibit remarkable piezoelectric property. Other than studying the crystallinity and morphology, the energy storage of the material is also investigated, and correlated with the output voltage generation. The research results shows improve in the crystallinity structure of the hybrid nanocomposite thus enhanced piezoelectricity. In addition, it shows improved dielectric constant of the hybrid nanocomposite thus improving storage capabilities of the developed material. Additional researches could be directed to test the ability of the developed hybrid nanocomposite to absorb electromagnetic radiation. In addition investigating self-cleaning properties due to the presence of TiO2 nanoparticles can be a good study. The established material can be used in numerous applications such as smart electronic textiles, biomedical applications, and artificial intelligence.