Energy Harvesting From Ceramic/Blended Polymer Nanocomposites: Ba0.85ca0.15zr0.10ti0.90o3/Polyvinylidene Fluoride-Polytetrafluoroethylene

The mechanical impact-based energy harvesting characteristics of 0-3 phi Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.10Ti0.90O3/(1-phi)polyvinylidene fluoride-polytetrafluoroethylene (BCZT/PVDF-PTFE); volume fraction (0 <= phi <= 0.25) nanocomposites, fabricated using a melt-mixing method, are presented. A scanning electron microscope is utilized to investigate the distribution of BCZT nanoceramic powder as filler in the blended polymer (PVDF-PTFE; 80:20). The X-ray diffraction method is applied to ascertain the formations of BCZT and BCZT/PVDF-PTFE. The values of apparent porosity, water absorption, shore D hardness, dielectric constant (epsilon(r)), tangent loss (tan delta), piezoelectric charge coefficient (d(33)) and voltage constant (g(33)), and figure of merit (FM) are found to increase upon increasing phi. A significant increment in the impact-generated electric voltage (25.38-77.73 V) and energy (9.42-243.9 nJ) is noticed with the increasing phi. In addition, the small values of water absorption (<0.091%) and tan delta (approximate to 10(-2)) with relatively higher values of epsilon(r), d(33), g(33), FM, and shore D hardness, power out (P-dc = 0.47 mW using 470 omega resistive load phi = 0.25 sample) as well as improved voltage generation and energy harvesting characteristics, prefigure the promise of the present composite system a superior lead-free alternative for the applications in energy harvesting, detection/sensing, and structural health monitoring.