A flexible energy harvester based on a lead-free and piezoelectric BCTZ nanoparticle-polymer composite

Changyeon Baek; Jong Hyuk Yun; Ji Eun Wang; Chang Kyu Jeong; Keon Jae Lee; Kwi-Il Park; Do Kyung Kim

doi:10.1039/c6nr05784e

A flexible energy harvester based on a lead-free and piezoelectric BCTZ nanoparticle-polymer composite

Nanoscale. 2016 Oct 14;8(40):17632-17638. doi: 10.1039/c6nr05784e.

Authors

Changyeon Baek¹, Jong Hyuk Yun¹, Ji Eun Wang¹, Chang Kyu Jeong², Keon Jae Lee¹, Kwi-Il Park³, Do Kyung Kim¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea. dkkim@kaist.ac.kr.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea. dkkim@kaist.ac.kr and KAIST Institute for the NanoCentury (KINC), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Energy Engineering, Gyeongnam National University of Science and Technology (GNTECH), 33 Dongjin-ro, Jinju-si, Gyeongsangnam-do 52725, Republic of Korea. kipark@gntech.ac.kr.

PMID: 27722725
DOI: 10.1039/c6nr05784e

Abstract

Lead-free piezoelectric 0.5(Ba_0.7Ca_0.3)TiO₃-0.5Ba(Zr_0.2Ti_0.8)O₃ (BCTZ) nanoparticles (NPs) composed of earth-abundant elements were adopted for use in a flexible composite-based piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) that can convert mechanical deformation into electrical energy. The solid-state synthesized BCTZ NPs and silver nanowires (Ag NWs) chosen to reduce the toxicity of the filler materials were blended with a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix to produce a piezoelectric nanocomposite (p-NC). The naturally flexible polymer-based p-NC layers were sandwiched between two conductive polyethylene terephthalate plastic substrates to achieve a flexible energy harvester. The BCTZ NP-based PEH effectively generated an output voltage peak of ∼15 V and a current signal of ∼0.8 μA without time-dependent degradation. This output was adequate to operate a liquid crystal display (LCD) and to turn on six blue light emitting diodes (LEDs).