Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE Nanotechnology Material and Devices Conference October 16-19, 2012, Hawaii, USA Investigation of PVDF-TrFE Nanofibers for Energy Harvesting Sumon Dey, Mohsen Purahmad*, Suman Sinha Ray Alexander L. Yarin, Mitra Dutta, Fellow, IEEE *
[email protected] Abstract- We have investigated the copolymer polyvinylidene energy harvesting, the generated pulse width is a critical fluoride, (PVDF-trifluoroethylene) for energy harvesting. parameter which should be considered during interface circuit Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers were electrospun on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated plastic. The electrical response of design and it can strongly affect the operation of interface nanofibers at different frequencies was investigated. The circuit and the net energy gain. experimental results demonstrate that the duty cycle of electrical The aim of this paper is to describe the effect of frequency response pulses is increased as the frequency of vibration is on the generated pulse widths from randomly oriented PVDF- increased. By using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the TrFE nanofibers. Experimental results demonstrate the change response pulses, the maximum power extracted has been calculated. of pulse widths on changing the frequency of the applied mechanical pressure. In addition, we also calculated maximum attainable power from PVDF-TrFE nanofibers. NTRODUCTION I. I A promising method of energy harvesting is the use II. PIEZOELECTRICITY EFFECT piezoelectric materials to capitalize on the ambient vibrations. Since the demand for high-performance wireless sensors is Piezoelectricity is the result of the rearrangement of increasing continuously, energy harvesting has been the focus electronic charges in materials with no inversion symmetry of much research for this application.