Shoepad nanogenerator based on electrospun PVDF nanofibers

The emerging wearable electronic devices requires power source available as anytime as possible, and the piezoelectric polymer based nanogenerators attract research interests as a candidate. Herein, we demonstrate a shoepad nanogenerator based on electrospun PVDF nanofibers harvesting energy during walking or running. We first compared three popular processes of electrospinning and find a best one which can produce maximum beta-phase content in PVDF nanofibers. Another comparative experiment shows for nanofabric mats the sandwiched electrodes are better for outputting more energy than parallel electrodes. Finally a nanogenerator is designed and fabricated utilizing the far field electrospun PVDF nanofabric mat with the sandwiched electrodes. It has the optimal output power of about 6.45 mu W with load resistance of 5.5M Omega.