Polymer-metal oxide composite nanofibers

Extensive studies have been conducted on different kinds of polymers, their composites, and multifunctionalities, depending on their structural features. Metal oxides and their polymer nanocomposites offer technological characteristics due to mechanical, electrical, and electronic properties. Nanofibers have considerable morphological significance, owing to their structural identity and behavior. Polymer composite nanofibers can be rodlike, porous, hollow, or core-shell, depending on the fabrication techniques that are used. Recently, electrospinning has been emerged as an important tool to fabricate microfibrous or nanofibrous membranes of polymers, biopolymers, and their composites. However, this procedure can be challenging, owing to the related cost and required external conditions, such as solvents and heat. Composite nanofibers can find applications in membrane, biomedical and pharmaceutical, food packaging, and environmental applications. This chapter discusses selected composite nanofibers and their characteristics, taking into account the electroactivity, elastomeric nature, and biofriendliness of the polymers.Scopu

Piezoelectric properties of zinc oxide/iron oxide filled polyvinylidene fluoride nanocomposite fibers

Piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENG) with flexible and simple design have pronounced significance in fabricating sustainable devices for self-powering electronics. This study demonstrates the fabrication of electrospun nanocomposite fibers from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) filled zinc oxide (ZnO)/iron oxide (FeO) nanomaterials. The nanocomposite fiber based flexible PENG shows piezoelectric output voltage of 5.9 V when 3 wt% of ZnO/FeO hybrid nanomaterial is introduced, which is 29.5 times higher than the neat PVDF. No apparent decline in output voltage is observed for almost 2000 s attributed to the outstanding durability. This higher piezoelectric output performance is correlated with the β-phase transformation studies from the Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy and the crystallinity studies from the differential scanning calorimetry. Both these studies show respective enhancement of 3.79 and 2.16% in the β-phase crystallinity values of PVDF-ZnO/FeO 3 wt% composite. Higher dielectric constant value obtained for the same composite (three times higher than the neat PVDF) confirms the increased energy storage efficiency as well. Thus the proposed soft and flexible PENG is a promising mechanical energy harvester, and its good dielectric properties reveals the ability to use this material as good power sources for wearable and flexible electronic devices.Other Information Published in: Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-06020-3</p