Flexible hybrid structure piezoelectric nanogenerator based on ZnO nanorod/PVDF nanofibers with improved outputElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c8ra10315a

This study aimed to develop a novel hybrid piezoelectric structure based on poly(vinylidene difluoride) nanofibers (PVDF NFs) and zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) which eliminate the need for post poling treatment in such hybrid structures. Mechanism of electrical performance enhancement of the hybrid structure is also discussed in this paper. To study the effect of hybridization on piezoelectric performance, pristine ZnO NRs and pristine PVDF NF nanogenerators were also fabricated. The piezoelectric performance of these three nanogenerators was evaluated under periodic deformation at low frequency. The output power of the hybrid structure was found to be enhanced compared to pristine ZnO NRs and PVDF NFs nanogenerators. Such simple hybrid devices that do not need to complicated post poling treatment are more efficient than previous hybrid PVDF/ZnO nanogenerators for practical application. This improved piezoelectric nanogenerator is expected to enable various applications in the field of self-powered devices and wearable energy harvesting to harvest mechanical energy from the human activities. A novel hybrid piezoelectric structure based on electrospun PVDF NFs and vertically grown ZnO nanorods is presented as a promising nanogenerator to convert mechanical movement more efficiently into electricity for practical applications.