Multifunctional Properties of Polyvinylidene-Fluoride-Based Materials: From Energy Harvesting to Energy Storage

Organic ferroelectrics are increasingly important due to their complementary properties to classical, inorganic ferroelectrics. Flexibility, chemical resistance, scalability, high breakdown fields, and biocompatibility are attractive for many applications like energy harvesting and storage. The most known energy harvesting methods are piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and triboelectric. Here, we apply the well-established material's figures of merit to five polyvinylidene-fluoride-based compositions ranging from ferroelectric to relaxor-like behavior to emphasize the importance of several key material parameters contributing to the maximal power output of energy harvesting devices. Afterward, we discuss the possibility of the same functional material storing the output energy for the development of scalable multifunctional devices.