Er³⁺/Fe³⁺ Stimulated Electroactive, Visible Light Emitting, and High Dielectric Flexible PVDF Film Based Piezoelectric Nanogenerators: A Simple and Superior Self-Powered Energy Harvester with Remarkable Power Density

Abstract

The design of an energy-harvesting unit with superior output characteristics, i.e., high power density, is a great technological challenge in the present time. Here, simple, lightweight, flexible, and cost-effective piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) have been fabricated by integrating the aluminum electrodes onto Er³⁺/Fe³⁺ stimulated electroactive, visible-light-emitting, and large dielectric PVDF films in which ErCl₃·6H₂O and Fe(NO₃)₃·9H₂O act as the catalytic agents for electroactive β polymorph nucleation and the enhancement of dielectric properties. The developed PENGs exhibit excellent energy-harvesting performance with very high power density and very fast charging ability compared with the previously reported PVDF-assisted prototype nanogenerators. The PENGs lead to very large power density (∼160 and ∼55.34 mW cm^-3) under periodic finger imparting for Er³⁺- and Fe³⁺-stimulated PVDF-film-based energy-harvester units, respectively. The fabricated self-powered PENG is also able to light up 54 commercially available light-emitting diodes.