ferroelectricity driven mechanical and thermal energy harvesters of polymer and 2d van der waals materials

Abstract

The increasing global energy demand makes renewable energy resources a primary focus of newlineinterest. The self-powered electronic devices based on mechanical and thermal stimuli could newlineminimize the energy demand and provide alternate solutions to use radially available newlinemechanical vibrations and dissipated heat from our surroundings. In this scenario, ferroelectric newlinematerials are one of the ideal choices due to their electrical, thermal (pyroelectric) and newlinemechanical (piezoelectric) stimuli-responsive properties. Traditionally, ferroelectricity is newlinereported mainly in bulk insulating materials that limit their optical functionalities and newlineapplication in thin film-based electronics. The discovery of 2D van der Waals opens up a new newlinedomain in low dimensional devices due to their synergistic electronic, optical and mechanical newlineproperties of materials. In this quest, it is expected that reducing the dimensionality of newlineferroelectric material could enhance the performance and thus the range of applications. This newlinethesis investigates the dimensionality effect on mechanical and thermal stimuli driven newlineferroelectric active polymers and 2D van der Waals materials so as envisioned as self-powered newlinedevices. The limiting performance of bulk-3D flexible ferroelectric polymer-based devices as newlinecompared to their oxide counterpart for mechanical and thermal energy harvesting is overcome newlineby introducing the concept of ferroelectret-based energy harvesters. In this work, a 3D printing newlineprocess is used to fabricate a porous ferroelectret structure followed by high-voltage corona newlinedischarge. The charged ferroelectret exhibits ferroelectric-type hysteresis and a 40 times higher newlinepiezoelectric coefficient as compared to the film counterpart. The temperate-dependent newlineanalysis suggests a reverse polarity of the pyroelectric coefficient with a monotonically newlineincreasing trend till the melting temperature, whereas the film counterpart shows maximum newlinepyroelectric coefficient at the Curie transition temperature (105 oC) as expected