Highly aligned thin PVDF/Cloisite 30B nanofibers as a piezoelectric sensor

•Highly aligned thin PVDF/Cloisite 30B nanofibers prepared by electrospinning.•The F(β) reached 91 %, and the voltage increased by 52 % at only 0.05 wt% Cloisite 30B.•Uniformly dispersed Cloisite 30B shows a reinforcing effect at low loading levels.•The soft sensor had a high performance at a lower loading level than the literature. One-dimensional confined nanostructures with intense dipole orientation exhibit enhanced piezoelectric performance compared to traditional three-dimensional bulk films. Herein, we show that preparing highly aligned thin polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers in the presence of a small amount of organically modified clay (Cloisite 30B) platelets induces a significant crystal polymorphism alteration from non-polar α-phase to polar β-phase rather than the randomly oriented neat PVDF nanofibers with a larger average diameter. It has been detected that the nanofiber orientation considerably contributes to the enhanced degree of crystallinity and mechanical properties. Also, the PVDF-Cloisite 30B interactions caused an improvement in the elastic modulus. The piezoelectric performance of the electrospun nanofibers was examined by sensing characteristics. It was found that the synergistic effects of nanofiber orientation and clay platelets efficiently improve sensing performance via the piezoelectric dipole orientation mechanism. [Display omitted]