Flexible Interconnected Cu-Ni Nanoalloys Decorated Carbon Nanotube-Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Piezoelectric Nanogenerator

Herein, high-performance flexible and stable Cu-Ni nanoalloy decorated carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) based piezoelectric nanogenerator is presented for the first time with very high current and power density. The formation of crystalline beta-phase is confirmed using FT-IR and Raman spectra analysis. HR-TEM study reveals the formation of Cu-Ni nanoalloys with well-defined interconnected structure with CNT. The Cu-Ni nanoalloy decorated CNT-PVDF nanogenerator device exhibits a high output voltage of 12 V and high current density of 0.3 mu A cm(-2) compared to pristine PVDF nanogenerator (4 V and 10 nA cm(-2)). Very high power density of 204 mu W cm(-3) is obtained from the nanocomposite nanogenerator. Piezoelectric force microscopy study reveals very high piezoelectric charge coefficient (d(33)) of about 160 pm V-1 from Cu-Ni decorated CNT-PVDF. Very stable output performance with almost no degradation till 1500 cycles is observed from the Cu-Ni nanoalloy CNT-PVDF nanogenerator. Such high stability is due to its dramatic improved high tensile strength of 60 MPa. Very high dielectric constant of 500 is observed from Cu-Ni decorated CNT-PVDF as compared to pristine PVDF (epsilon' approximate to 20). The dramatic increase in output performance even under without electrical poling is discussed in light of self-dipole alignment, in-situ poling, high d(33), interfacial polarization, and enhanced dielectric properties.