Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Using Polyvinylidene Fluoride Nanocomposite Films and Lead Zirconate Titanate

This paper reports an experimental study of electrical output parameters and the resonance frequencies of different thick piezoelectric plate films and Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) thick disc attached at the clamped end of copper beam. The experiments were carried out with different plate piezoelectric thick films such as; polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), PVDF/PZT, and PVDF/PZT with multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) with the thickness around of 0.4 mm and commercial PZT thick disc with diameter of 12.5 mm and thickness of 2 mm attached to the copper cantilever with the thickness of 0.2 mm. The output power was measured with changing the load resistance value from 100 kΩ to 1 MΩ, and the value of the load resistance of PZT disc had the optimum value around 100 kΩ and the optimum resistance of piezoelectric plate films was found around 1 MΩ. The maximum output power obtained at resonance frequency of the optimum resistance was 0.39, 0.84, and 1.3 nW for PVDF, PVDF/PZT, and PVDF/PZT MWCNT, respectively. As well, the maximum output power obtained at resonance frequency of the optimum resistance was 13 nW for PZT disc. The mode shapes of cantilever beam in both cases of PVDF film and PZT disc were examined by using the finite element method (FEM).