Influence of High Aspect Ratio Nanoparticle Filler Addition on Piezoelectric Nanocomposites

Piezoelectric nanogenerators (PNGs) are a new class of energy harvesting materials that show potential as a direct energy source for low powered electronics. Recently, piezoelectric polymers have been utilized for PNG technology due to low toxicity, high flexibility, and facile solution processing which provide manufacturing opportunities such as screen printing. Throughout the last decade, countless projects have focused on how to enhance the energy harvesting capabilities of these PNGs through the incorporation of nanoparticle fillers, which have been reported to enhance the piezoelectric properties of the film either directly through their intrinsic piezoelectric properties or through acting as surfaces for the interfacial nucleation of piezoelectric polymer crystals. Herein, two systems of PNGs formed from piezoelectric copolymers poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluropropylene) or poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) mixed with high aspect ratio zinc oxide nanowires, hydroxyl functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes, or carboxylic acid functionalized single walled carbon nanotubes were investigated. Variations of filler type and loading are tested to determine influences on film morphology and piezoelectric properties. Power harvesting tests are conducted to directly determine the effect of nanoparticle addition on the output power of the non-poled devices. Both copolymer systems are found to exhibit a non-linear increase in output power with the increase of nanoparticle filler loading. The crystal polymorph properties of both systems are investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The microstructure of the poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) films are further examined using X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, polarized optical microscopy, and atomic force microscopy to determine the mechanism behind the increased power harvesting capabilities. As well, explanations for perceived output power from “self-poled” films are briefly explored

Electroelasticity of Charged Black Branes

We present the first-order corrected dynamics of fluid branes carrying higher-form charge by obtaining the general form of their equations of motion to pole-dipole order. Assuming linear response theory, we characterize the corresponding effective theory of stationary bent charged (an)isotropic fluid branes in terms of two sets of response coefficients, the Young modulus and the piezoelectric moduli. We subsequently find large classes of examples in gravity of this effective theory, by constructing stationary strained charged black brane solutions to first order in a derivative expansion. Using solution generating techniques and bent neutral black branes as a seed solution, we obtain a class of charged black brane geometries carrying smeared Maxwell charge in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity. In the specific case of ten-dimensional space-time we furthermore use T-duality to generate bent black branes with higher-form charge, including smeared D-branes of type II string theory. By subsequently measuring the bending moment and the electric dipole moment which these geometries acquire due to the strain, we uncover that their form is captured by classical electroelasticity theory. In particular, we find that the Young modulus and the piezoelectric moduli of our strained charged black brane solutions are parameterized by a total of 4 response coefficients, both for the isotropic as well as anisotropic cases.Comment: v2: 40pp; typos fixe

Extremal Black Hole Horizons

Using the blackfold effective theory applied to extremal Kerr branes we provide evidence for the existence of new stationary extremal black hole solutions in asymptotically flat spacetime with both single and multiple disconnected horizons. These include extremal doubly-spinning black rings, black saturns, di-rings and bi-rings in five spacetime dimensions as well as extremal Myers-Perry black holes and black saturns in dimensions greater than five. Some of these constructions constitute the first examples of black hole solutions with extremal disconnected horizons in vacuum Einstein gravity.Comment: v2: 30pp, 12 figures; comments and reference added; comparison between approximate and analytic black ring and Myers-Perry solutions added; to be published in JHE

Null-Wave Giant Gravitons from Thermal Spinning Brane Probes

We construct and analyze thermal spinning giant gravitons in type II/M-theory based on spherically wrapped black branes, using the method of thermal probe branes originating from the blackfold approach. These solutions generalize in different directions recent work in which the case of thermal (non-spinning) D3-brane giant gravitons was considered, and reveal a rich phase structure with various new properties. First of all, we extend the construction to M-theory, by constructing thermal giant graviton solutions using spherically wrapped M2- and M5-branes. More importantly, we switch on new quantum numbers, namely internal spins on the sphere, which are not present in the usual extremal limit for which the brane world volume stress tensor is Lorentz invariant. We examine the effect of this new type of excitation and in particular analyze the physical quantities in various regimes, including that of small temperatures as well as low/high spin. As a byproduct we find new stationary dipole-charged black hole solutions in AdS_m X S^n backgrounds of type II/M-theory. We finally show, via a double scaling extremal limit, that our spinning thermal giant graviton solutions lead to a novel null-wave zero-temperature giant graviton solution with a BPS spectrum, which does not have an analogue in terms of the conventional weakly coupled world volume theory.Comment: v1: 31p