Piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of DL-alanine and L-lysine amino-acid polymer nanofibres

Abstract

The piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of electrospun polyethylene oxide nanofibres embedded with polar amino acids DL-alanine and L-lysine hemihydrate are reported. A high pyroelectric coefficient of 150 μC m−2 K−1 was measured for L-lysine hemihydrate and piezoelectric current densities up to 7 μA m−2 were obtained for the nanofibres. The study reveals a potential for polymer amino-acid nanofibres to be used as biocompatible energy harvesters for autonomous circuit applications like in implantable electronics.