1 research outputs found
Piezoelectric Nanoparticle–Polymer Composite Foams
Piezoelectric polymer composite foams
are synthesized using different sugar-templating strategies. By incorporating
sugar grains directly into polydimethylsiloxane mixtures containing
barium titanate nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes, followed by removal
of the sugar after polymer curing, highly compliant materials with
excellent piezoelectric properties can be fabricated. Porosities and
elasticity are tuned by simply adjusting the sugar/polymer mass ratio
which gave an upper bound on the porosity of 73% and a lower bound
on the elastic coefficient of 32 kPa. The electrical performance of
the foams showed a direct relationship between porosity and the piezoelectric
outputs, giving piezoelectric coefficient values of ∼112 pC/N
and a power output of ∼18 mW/cm<sup>3</sup> under a load of
10 N for the highest porosity samples. These novel materials should
find exciting use in a variety of applications including energy scavenging
platforms, biosensors, and acoustic actuators