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Review
. 2018 Oct 24;18(11):3605.
doi: 10.3390/s18113605.

Piezoelectric Polymer and Paper Substrates: A Review

Affiliations
Review

Piezoelectric Polymer and Paper Substrates: A Review

Kiran Kumar Sappati et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Polymers and papers, which exhibit piezoelectricity, find a wide range of applications in the industry. Ever since the discovery of PVDF, piezo polymers and papers have been widely used for sensor and actuator design. The direct piezoelectric effect has been used for sensor design, whereas the inverse piezoelectric effect has been applied for actuator design. Piezo polymers and papers have the advantages of mechanical flexibility, lower fabrication cost and faster processing over commonly used piezoelectric materials, such as PZT, BaTiO₃. In addition, many polymer and paper materials are considered biocompatible and can be used in bio applications. In the last 20 years, heterostructural materials, such as polymer composites and hybrid paper, have received a lot of attention since they combine the flexibility of polymer or paper, and excellent pyroelectric and piezoelectric properties of ceramics. This paper gives an overview of piezoelectric polymers and papers based on their operating principle. Main categories of piezoelectric polymers and papers are discussed with a focus on their materials and fabrication techniques. Applications of piezoelectric polymers and papers in different areas are also presented.

Keywords: paper; piezoelectric; polymer; sensors; substrates.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the longitudinal direct (a); converse (b); and shear (c) piezoelectric effects.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Classification of piezoelectric polymers: bulk piezo polymers, voided charged polymers or piezoelectrets and piezoelectric polymer composites.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Poling process: (a) prior to polarization polar domains are oriented randomly; (b) a very large DC electric field is used for polarization; (c) after the DC field is removed, the remnant polarization remains.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic representation of a Corona poling station.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Connectivity patterns for piezoelectric ceramic and polymer composites. Reprinted with permission from [40] © 2012 Elsevier. (b) Connectivity of piezo composites.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Cross section of cellulose fibers along with cell wall constructional details. Reprinted with permission from [65] © 2011 Wiley online library.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Bending displacement of piezo-paper actuator for different (a) orientation angles and (b) applied voltages. Young’s modulus varies with the orientation angle. Reprinted with permission from [61] © 2010, MDPI.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Possible applications of piezoelectric polymer/paper substrates; important areas are energy harvesting and sensing applications; Reprinted, with permission, from [84], © 2008 Wiley online library.
Figure 9
Figure 9
(a) Structural details of organic charge modulated FET (OCMFET) coupled to PVDF capacitor. (b) Output and input characteristics of OCMFET device for tactile sensing; Reprinted with permission from [87] © 2016 Elsevier.
Figure 10
Figure 10
PATSA works as a calculator. (a) Longitude and latitude voltage data plots from the eight-channel electrodes of the PATSA when pixel (III-b) was subjected to a force.(b) Derived histogram sketch for this scenario. (c) Assembled flexible PATSA calculator. Reprinted with permission from [90] © 2015 Wiley online library.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Cross-sectional view gas of sensor using a PVDF substrate [95].
Figure 12
Figure 12
(a) Open-circuit output voltage of a PDMS/Cellulose/MWCNT based nanogenerator. (b) Voltage and instantaneous power change with respect to the load resistance (inset shows the corresponding circuit diagram). (c) Charging a capacitor from repeated human hand punching and releasing. LEDs and LCD screen (shown in inset of c) are lighted directly and from the charged capacitor, respectively. Reprinted with permission from [78] © 2016 ACS Publication.
Figure 13
Figure 13
PVDF sensor for heartbeat and respiration detection. (a) Schematic representation of the adhesion of the PVDF sensor and control sensor patch on the chest wall of a human body. Comparison of the electrical signals obtained from the control sensor, and the proposed PVDF sensor: (b) raw electrical signals, (c) filtered signals for heartbeat detection, and (d) filtered signals for respiration detection. Reprinted with permission from [107] © 2013 Elsevier.
Figure 14
Figure 14
(a) Open circuit voltage and (b) short circuit current wave forms of the PVDF/BaTi1xZrxO3 based self-powered fluid velocity sensor for different water flow velocities with periodic ON/OFF conditions. (c) Linear relationship between water velocities and flow rate was obtained. The schematic diagram of the control experiment is shown in the inset. (d) The average maximum output peak power achieved for different velocities during ON/OFF conditions. Reprinted with permission from [109] © 2015 ACS publications.
Figure 15
Figure 15
(i) Steps to fabricate ultra-thin silicon based PVDF-TrFE capacitors: (a) Hard mask growth (b)Backside patterning to open etching window (c) Bottom metal deposition and patterning (d) PVDF-TrFE spin coating, annealing and top metal deposition (e) Patterning top metal and dry etching of polymer (f) Wet etching of bulk silicon (g) Final device on thin silicon (ii) (top) Scanning Electron Microscopy image of the piezo-capacitor sensor (bottom) optical profilometer image showing warp image of thin chip with the piezo-capacitor. Reprinted with permission from [110] © 2016 Elsevier.

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