Enhancement of the piezoelectric response of corona charged Ag/P(VDF-TrFE) nanocomposites for energy harvesting devices

Poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene)/Ag nanocomposites are fabricated in-situ using casting technique. Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-Vis spectroscopy are employed to investigate the structural and optical properties. Analysis of XRD measurements demonstrated that the crystallinity degree of P(VDF-TrFE) copolymer is enhanced upon increasing the AgNPs content. FTIR analysis showed that the electroactive β-phase is enhanced in the nanocomposite samples with increasing the content of AgNPs. UV-Vis results showed that both direct and indirect energy gaps (Edg/Eig) are reduced from (4.89/2.85) for pure P(VDF-TrFE) to (4.13/2.19) eV for P(VDF-TrFE)/0.28wt%Ag nanocomposite. Global TSDC measurements revealed that the ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition is occurred at 323 K for pure P(VDF-TrFE) and decreased to 317 K after embedding AgNPs. The piezoelectric activity is found to enhance with increasing applied stress, measuring temperature and AgNPs content. The piezoelectric coefficient (d33) is optimized from 11.7 pC/N for pure P(VDF-TrFE) to 38.3 pC/N for P(VDF-TrFE)/0.28 wt%Ag nanocomposite at 6.24 × 105 Pa. Our results provide prediction for the design of a novel flexible piezoelectric material capable of energy harvesting applications.