Electret Nanogenerators for Self-Powered, Flexible Electronic Pianos

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Electret Nanogenerators for Self-Powered, Flexible Electronic Pianos sustainability Article Electret Nanogenerators for Self-Powered, Flexible Electronic Pianos Yongjun Xiao 1, Chao Guo 2, Qingdong Zeng 1, Zenggang Xiong 1, Yunwang Ge 2, Wenqing Chen 2, Jun Wan 3,4,* and Bo Wang 2,* 1 School of Physics and Electronic-Information Engineering, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan 432000, China; [email protected] (Y.X.); [email protected] (Q.Z.); [email protected] (Z.X.) 2 School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, China; [email protected] (C.G.); [email protected] (Y.G.); [email protected] (W.C.) 3 State Key Laboratory for Hubei New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technology, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China 4 Hubei Key Laboratory of Biomass Fiber and Ecological Dyeing and Finishing, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China * Correspondence: [email protected] (J.W.); [email protected] (B.W.) Abstract: Traditional electronic pianos mostly adopt a gantry type and a large number of rigid keys, and most keyboard sensors of the electronic piano require additional power supply during playing, which poses certain challenges for portable electronic products. Here, we demonstrated a fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP)-based electret nanogenerator (ENG), and the output electrical performances of the ENG under different external pressures and frequencies were systematically characterized. At a fixed frequency of 4 Hz and force of 4 N with a matched load resistance of 200 MW, an output 2 power density of 20.6 mW/cm could be achieved. Though the implementation of a signal processing circuit, ENG-based, self-powered pressure sensors have been demonstrated for self-powered, flexible Citation: Xiao, Y.; Guo, C.; Zeng, Q.; electronic pianos. This work provides a new strategy for electret nanogenerators for self-powered Xiong, Z.; Ge, Y.; Chen, W.; Wan, J.; sensor networks and portable electronics. Wang, B. Electret Nanogenerators for Self-Powered, Flexible Electronic Keywords: electret; nanogenerator; self-powered; flexible; electronic piano Pianos. Sustainability 2021, 13, 4142. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084142 Academic Editor: Peihua Yang 1. Introduction With the massive development of electronic technology, especially in smart and wear- Received: 15 February 2021 able electronics, implantable electronic devices, patient monitoring, distributed wireless Accepted: 23 March 2021 Published: 8 April 2021 sensor networks, environmental and structure monitoring, and national security, etc., har- vesting energy from the human body and the ambient environment is a suitable solution Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral for the rapid and constant increase of the world’s energy demand. Meanwhile, there is with regard to jurisdictional claims in ubiquitous kinetic energy in various motions and vibrations: for example, human motion, published maps and institutional affil- walking, vibration, mechanical triggering, rotating tires, wind, flowing water, and more. iations. Therefore, harvesting mechanical energy from the living environment to establish a sus- tainable and maintenance-free electronic system has become a research hotspot in the last two decades [1–3]. New technologies that can harvest energy from the environment as self-sufficient micro/nano-power sources are newly emerging fields of nanoenergy, which is about the applications of nanomaterials and nanotechnology for harvesting energy for Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. powering micro/nanosystems [4,5]. This article is an open access article Electronic pianos are widely used in modern music performances, people’s learning distributed under the terms and and entertainment due to their wide range of sound, abundant harmony, multi-tone conditions of the Creative Commons imitation, free volume regulation, rhythm accompaniment similar to percussion sound, Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// and additional effects such as reverberation, echo, delay, vibrators and modulators, etc. [6,7]. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ In general, traditional electronic pianos mostly adopt a gantry type and a large number 4.0/). of rigid keys, which occupy a large space, and thus the whole system is inconvenient to Sustainability 2021, 13, 4142. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084142 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021, 13, 4142 2 of 10 carry. In addition, most of the keyboard sensors of the electronic piano require additional power supply during playing, which poses certain challenges for portable applications that continue to work. For instance, the theremin, the first electronic instrument, produced in 1928, uses capacitive sensors as the interface, and additional power consumption is inevitable [8]. Therefore, to realize a portable and sustainable electronic piano, flexible and self-powered pressure sensors should be endowed to the keyboard of the smart electronic piano, which is small in size, easy to carry, and maintenance-free [9]. Up to now, pressure sensors with various sensing mechanisms such as piezoresis- tivity [10–14], capacitance [15–17], piezoelectricity [18–20], and triboelectricity [21–23] have been successfully demonstrated in the last two decades. Among these, resistive and capacitive sensors require peripheral auxiliary circuits to power the sensors to achieve the required parameters, while piezoelectric and triboelectric sensors can output a certain voltage or current signal directly without the need for external equipment under the stimuli of external force [24,25]. However, piezoelectric sensors depend on the characteristics of the piezoelectric materials used. Although the performance of traditional piezoelectric ceramics such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) have high piezoelectric coefficients (up to 700 pC/N) [26], their intrinsic brittleness limits their application in flexible electronics. The flexible piezoelectric polymers, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its co-polymers, have better flexibility and mechanical toughness, but the piezoelectric coefficients d33 are only dozens of pC/N [27]. In recent years, triboelectric nanogenerators have been designed and used to harvest mechanical energy from the working environment of the device to directly power the device, forming a trend of self-powered systems for application in micro- electromechanical converters, especially in portable/wearable personal electronics [28]. The basic working mechanism of triboelectric nanogenerators is the coupling effects be- tween triboelectrification and electrostatic induction through the contact-separation or relative sliding between two dielectric materials that have opposite electron affinities. The area power density of the devices can reach up to 1200 W/m2, and thus the output performance is high enough and very suitable to be used to design self-powered, active mechanical/vibrational sensors for flexible electronics [29]. Specially, the active materials of the nanogenerators that usually have a strong triboelectric effect are likely less conductive or insulators, so most of them can be classified into electrets, which are dielectric materials exhibiting quasi-permanent charges [30]. Electret nanogenerators are superior due to their light weight, high output performance, and good resistance to high temperatures and high humidity, which makes them very suitable for self-powered pressure sensing electronic devices [31–33]. In this work, an electret nanogenerator (ENG) was prepared using fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) electret and indium tin oxide/polyethylene terephthalate (ITO/PET), forming an arch-shaped structure. The output electrical performances of the ENG under different external pressures and frequencies were systematically characterized. Under the external pressure of 4 N and frequency of 4 Hz with a matched load resistance of 200 MW, the as-fabricated ENG could achieve a maximum power density of 20.6 µW/cm2. In addition, ENG-based self-powered pressure sensors were mounted onto the keyboard of a flexible electronic piano, and a signal processing system was demonstrated to realize the application of a flexible electronic piano. This work provides a new strategy to fabricate smart electronic pianos, indicating its promising applications in artificial intelligence and smart electronic devices. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Fabrication Process of the ENG In the first step, a piece of FEP film (DuPont FEP50) was cut into a rectangular shape with an area of 4 × 1.3 cm2, followed by corona charging under a high voltage of −15 kV for 5 min. In the second step, a piece of PI substrate was cut in accordance to the same size of the FEP, and then a 60 nm copper electrode was stuck on its upper side. In the third step, the FEP film was tightly bonded to the copper electrode of the polyimide (PI) Sustainability 2021, 13, 4142 3 of 10 substrate, and both ends of the ITO/PET film were bonded to the FEP film by double- sided adhesive to form an arch-shaped structure [34]. All films were rinsed with alcohol before measurement. 2.2. Fabrication of Electronic Piano Firstly, a flexible PCB substrate was designed using CAD software. Specifically, seven pieces of copper-clad pad with an area of 4 × 1.3 cm2 and a thickness of 60 nm were pasted on a flexible PI substrate, which were connected to the seven terminals of the flexible wire interface, respectively. Subsequently, a common copper-clad pad was installed on the PI film as the common ground electrode, which was connected with the eighth terminal
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