Flexible piezoelectric composite materials and devices for self-powered sensing

This research focuses on flexible piezoelectric PVDF-TrFE composites to resolve trade-offs between mechanical flexibility, electrical output, scalable manufacturing, and device integration. Incorporating engineered fillers, specifically MWCNTs@BaTiO3 heterostructures and PANI@BaTiO3 core-shell particles, enhances polarization, interfacial interactions, and piezoelectric performance. The developed materials serve in touch and texture recognition, wearable movement tracking, and human-machine interfaces. To facilitate practical deployment, an ultrasonic spray-coating process produces patterned, large-area C@BaTiO3/PVDF-TrFE films on flat and curved surfaces. Demonstrations including foot-pressure mapping via a smart insole and vibration monitoring on curved structures show how this approach connects composite engineering with scalable conformal sensing.