| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Energy Frontiers Focus Topic | Thursday Sessions |
| Session EN+NS-ThA |
| Session: | Nanostructures for Energy Storage and Fuel Cells II |
| Presenter: | Jennifer Jones, Fisk University |
| Authors: | J. Jones, Fisk University H. Park, Vanderbilt University L. Zhu, Case Western Reserve University N.H. Tolk, Vanderbilt University R. Mu, Fisk University |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Piezoelectric materials may arguably be the most functional, versatile and widely used materials with a wide range of applications including mechanical sensors, actuators, energy storage and energy harvesting devices. The well established applications are largely based on inorganic piezoelectric materials. The successful employment of polymeric piezoelectric materials, such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its related co-polymers, although light weight, flexible, optically transparent and cost effective, are limited by relatively low piezoelectric coefficients, thermal stability, and durability. The focus of the group is to develop a multilayered piezoelectric PVDF system for improved energy harvesting and energy storage efficiency. These systems are fabricated using enabling technology in co-extrusion which allows more cost effective and large area device production as opposed to more conventional layer-by-layer techniques. Many efforts have been made by the team to fabricate these micro- and nano-layered systems resulting in much improved device performance. A three-time improvement of capacitive electrical energy density has been demonstrated. The focus of this research is to understand the physics of why these multilayered systems perform better than a single layer by developing a characterization technique using both confocal second harmonic generation (SHG) and electric field induced second harmonic (EFISH) laser spectroscopy. Our results have shown that SHG is a very sensitive, non-destructive and versatile technique that can be used to study the piezoelectric and structural properties of layered systems. When combined with EFISH this technique allows the interrogation of electrical properties within the individual layers and at the interfaces between the layers. Further, the proposed techniques can be readily employed in-situ which can provide information in real time during sample processing with static and time-resolved spectroscopic measurements.