Recent progress on polyvinylidene difluoride-based nanocomposites: applications in energy harvesting and sensing

Abstract

Discovered in 2006, nanogenerators have attracted much attention as promising energy-harvesting devices. They harness energy utilizing piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and thermoelectric properties of nanomaterials to produce electricity and have the potential to be used in self-driven flexible devices. Due to their exceptional properties, poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF)-based nanocomposites are attracting remarkable interest for their use in piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) with some other potential applications. Filler incorporation improves the piezoelectric and dielectric properties of PVDF nanocomposites and is being explored in the development of sensors, micro-electric-mechanical devices, electromechanical actuators, transducers, and energy harvesters. Due to the ease of arranging their dipoles, PVDF and various kinds of filler made composites with innumerable properties are being used to fabricate PENGs to solve real-world energy problems. The present review has been devoted to addressing and exploring the various aspects of PVDF and its copolymer/inorganic filler composites, with particular reference to piezoelectric and dielectric properties based on experimental findings, and the data/results are available in the literature. We hope that this PVDF-based specific review article offers a useful starting point for researchers entering this field, providing an overview of PVDF-based composite synthesis approaches, the effect of fillers on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of composites, and their applications in energy harvesting and sensing.