Multi-functional wet-electrospun piezoelectric nanofibers sensing mat: Manufacturing, characterization, and applications

This paper introduces the fabrication of multi-featured nanofibers membranes using wet-electrospinning process. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers were wet-electrospun onto poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) coagulation bath to generate hybrid structure of piezoelectric multifunctional sensor. Therefore, the fabricated wet-electrospun nanofibers membrane shows piezo sensitivity up to 0.9 V/N and piezo coefficient (d33) of 27.2 pC/N. In addition, our fabricated membrane shows a variable surface roughness response up to 120 p.m. at an applied DC voltage of 10 V, as an opposite piezoelectric transducing mechanism. Also, our formed nanocomposite showed a strain sensing capability with conductivity variation of 0.01833 S/m per each 1% elongation strain. Furthermore, we have detected the effect of cyclic stretching strains over 100 times on the performance of both piezo response and strain sensing of our developed wetspun nanofibers. The presented work has a high potential to be applied in different applications related to wearable and flexible electronics as well as industrial mechanical transducers.