Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23341-3
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Funding
- Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects funding scheme [LP160100071]
- Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Future Fellowships funding scheme [FT130100380]
- Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Industry Transformation Research Hub funding scheme [IH140100018]
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The study reveals a previously unseen polarization locking phenomenon of PVDF-TrFE driven by strong electrostatic interactions around 2D materials, leading to exceptional piezoelectric performance without the need for external energy input. This provides a new fundamental and low-energy input mechanism for poling fluoropolymers, enabling advancements in electromechanical technologies.
Piezoelectric fluoropolymers convert mechanical energy to electricity and are ideal for sustainably providing power to electronic devices. To convert mechanical energy, a net polarization must be induced in the fluoropolymer, which is currently achieved via an energy-intensive electrical poling process. Eliminating this process will enable the low-energy production of efficient energy harvesters. Here, by combining molecular dynamics simulations, piezoresponse force microscopy, and electrodynamic measurements, we reveal a hitherto unseen polarization locking phenomena of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) perpendicular to the basal plane of two-dimensional (2D) Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets. This polarization locking, driven by strong electrostatic interactions enabled exceptional energy harvesting performance, with a measured piezoelectric charge coefficient, d(33), of -52.0 picocoulombs per newton, significantly higher than electrically poled PVDF-TrFE (approximately -38 picocoulombs per newton). This study provides a new fundamental and low-energy input mechanism of poling fluoropolymers, which enables new levels of performance in electromechanical technologies. Fluoropolymers are state-of-the-art flexible piezoelectric materials, yet require massive energy inputs to function. Here, the authors show that the electrostatic field around a 2D material leads to polarization orientation and maximized piezoelectric performance, without external energy input.
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