Highly conductive PEDOT electrodes for harvesting dynamic energy through piezoelectric conversion

Abstract

A highly conductive PEDOT material was explored as a transparent electrode for a piezoelectric PVDF film. The potential of a piezoelectric film device consisting of a PEDOT/PVDF/PEDOT layer was realized in fabricating a transparent and flexible energy harvester that generates electricity from repetitive physical displacements (stretching and pressing). The output voltage and current density of the energy generator were 16.4 V (peak-to-peak) and 0.2 μA cm⁻² (peak-to-peak), respectively, when applying 800 mN of stretching power. These values are much higher than the PEDOT:PSS–CNT system and comparable to those reported earlier for inorganic-based nanogenerators. Finally, a self-lighting system consisting of an LED bulb, a capacitor, and the PEDOT/PVDF/PEDOT device was demonstrated under a dynamic stretching condition, allowing for the large-scale, low-cost production of a miniaturized active thin-film energy harvester.