Piezoelectric energy harvesting technologies, which can be used to convert the electricity from the mechanical energy, have been developed in order to assist or power the wearable electronics. To realize non-toxic and biocompatible electronics, the lead-free (Ba_0.85Ca_0.15)(Ti_0.90Zr_0.10)O₃ (BCTZ) nanoparticles (NPs) are being studied with a great attention as flexible energy harvesting device. Herein, piezoelectric hybrid nanocomposites were fabricated using BCTZ NPs-embedded poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] matrix to improve the performance of flexible energy harvester. Output performance of the fabricated energy device was investigated by the well-optimized measurement system during the periodically bending and releasing motions. The generated open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current of the piezoelectric hybrid nanocomposite-based energy harvester reached up to ~15 V and ~1.1 μA, respectively; moreover, the instantaneous power of 3.5 μW is determined from load voltage and current at the external load of 20 MΩ. This research is expected to cultivate a new approach to high-performance wearable self-powering electronics.

P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) (Poly (vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene)), which exhibits a high electrostriction of about 7%, can transmit tactile output as vibration or displacement. In this study, we investigated the applicability of P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) to wearable piezoelectric actuators. The P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) layers were deposited through spin-coating, and interspaced with patterned Ag electrodes to fabricate a two-layer 3.5 mm × 3.5 mm device. This layered structure was designed and fabricated to increase the output and displacement of the actuator at low driving voltages. In addition, a laser vibrometer and piezoelectric force microscope were used to analyze the device’s vibration characteristics over the range of ~200~4,200 Hz. The on-off characteristics were confirmed at a frequency of 40 Hz.

The power conversion efficiency of organic polymer solar cells was enhanced by introducing a ferroelectric polymer layer at the interface between active layer and metal electrode. The power conversion efficiency was increased by 50% through the enhancement of the open circuit voltage. To investigate the role of the ferroelectric layer on the dissociation process of the excitons, non-radiative portion of the exciton decay was directly measured by using photoacoustic technique. The results show that the ferroelectric nature of the buffer layer does not play any roles on the dissociation process of the excitons, which indicates the efficiency enhancement is not due to the ferroelectricity of the buffer layer.

P3HT:PCBM bulk heterojunction solar cells added with ferroelectric polymer were fabricated and characterized. By incorporating P3HT:PCBM solar cell with P(VDF-TrFE) ferroelectric additive, the power conversion efficiency was increased up to nearly 50%. Photoacoustic analysis on this phenomena was carried out for the first time. Through this study, we find that the ferroelectricity of the polymer additive plays the key role in the enhancement of the power conversion efficiency of the organic solar cell by suppressing the non-radiative recombination of charge transfer exciton more effectively.

The electro-optic properties in Langmuir Blodgett films of poly (vinylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene) are investigated in the crossover region between two and three dimensions. The absence of finite size effect is observed in the films thinner than 20 nm, which confirms that these films are two dimensional ferroelectrics. The copolymer LB film of P(VDF-TrFE) exhibits the largest electro-optic response(26 pm/V) at 10 layer thickness. The cross-over behavior of electro-optic effect around the 10layer thickness was discussed with the formation of nanomesa after thermal annealing.

Phase transition properties of the copolymer films of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and trifluoroethylene(TrFE), P(VDF-TrFE), were studied with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and polarization modulated ellipsometry (PME). XRD studies on both Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films and spin coated films exhibit conversions from ferroelectric phase to paraelectric phase at 108±2℃ on heating and paraelectric phase to ferroelectric phase at 78±2℃ on cooling. The presence of the ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition is also confirmed by the PME technique for the first time in this study. PME was proved to be a very sensitive tool in the measurement of the structural changes at the nano-thickness films.