PVDF/SnO₂ Flexible Piezoelectric Nanogenerator Films for Energy Harvesting Application

Piezoelectric generator is one of the promising energy harvesters for low energy electronic devices. Polyvinylidene Difluoride (PVDF) holds promise for piezoelectric material due to its flexibility, scalability and low cost. These properties can be improved by doping process with Tin (IV) Oxide (SnO₂). This paper investigates the influence of SnO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> on the properties of PVDF flexible piezoelectric (FPENG) nanogenerator films. Contact angle analysis confirms the hydrophobic nature of all deposited FPENG films with contact angles exceeding 90°. Besides, it was found that as the weight percentage of SnO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> filler increases, there is an observable morphological trend indicating that SnO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> begins to dominate the PVDF matrix. The piezo-response analysis demonstrates that the film doped with 5 wt % SnO₂ exhibits the highest output voltage among others, indicating optimal piezoelectric performance. The film was found to produce 8 ~V peak-to-peak due to uniform surface morphology with the presence of spherulite structure. These findings support 5 wt % SnO₂ filler is the optimum weight percentage for enhancing the electroactive β-phase which leads to the high piezoelectric properties of the PVDF/SnO 2 FPENG films.