title: Piezoelectric nanoparticle-polymer composite foams.
abstract: Piezoelectric polymer composite foams are synthesized using different sugar-templating strategies. By incorporating sugar grains directly into polydimethylsiloxane mixtures containing barium titanate nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes, followed by removal of the sugar after polymer curing, highly compliant materials with excellent piezoelectric properties can be fabricated. Porosities and elasticity are tuned by simply adjusting the sugar/polymer mass ratio which gave an upper bound on the porosity of 73% and a lower bound on the elastic coefficient of 32 kPa. The electrical performance of the foams showed a direct relationship between porosity and the piezoelectric outputs, giving piezoelectric coefficient values of ∼112 pC/N and a power output of ∼18 mW/cm3 under a load of 10 N for the highest porosity samples. These novel materials should find exciting use in a variety of applications including energy scavenging platforms, biosensors, and acoustic actuators.
authors.affiliation: Department of NanoEngineering and ‡Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego , La Jolla, California 92093, United States.
authors.forename: William R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: McCall
authors.forename: Kanguk
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Cory
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: La Pierre
authors.forename: Donald J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Sirbuly
mesh_terms: D017609:Barium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000737:chemistry*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D016062:Porosity; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D017609:Barium Compounds; D002241:Carbohydrates; D011108:Polymers; C024547:barium titanate(IV); D014025:Titanium
keywords: BaTiO3; composite; foam; nanoparticle; piezoelectric; polymer