Energy Harvesting by Cyclic Tensile Loading and Buckling via an Electrospun Polyblend Elastic Layer of PVDF/PU

Abstract

Energy harvesting through piezoelectric materials is considered an alternative to conventional power sources. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is a piezoelectric material that has garnered significant attention from researchers. Blending PVDF with thermoplastic polyurethane can enhance its elastic properties. Numerous studies have successfully generated electric currents from piezoelectric materials by applying pressure and impact. This study, however, explores the generation of an electric current in piezoelectric materials by applying cyclic tensile loading. For this purpose, a tensile loading device was designed and built at the laboratory scale. Subsequently, a PVDF/PU polymer alloy layer (in a 25:75 ratio) was fabricated using the electrospinning method and installed in the loading device for testing. The results demonstrated that the electrical resistance decreased upon applying tension to the layer. Employing cyclic loading on the alloy layer resulted in an output voltage ranging between 3 and 9 mV, which confirmed the feasibility of energy harvesting from the polyblend layer. In a novel approach undertaken in this study, an electric current was generated by applying cyclic tensile loading, resulting in subsequent buckling. The potential energy harvesting mechanism from cyclic tensile loading and buckling is also elaborated upon. In addition, the study assessed and reported the effect of increasing the cyclic loading frequency on energy harvesting.