Email 
Linkedin 
WhatsApp 
Print/PDF Bio-inspired flexible piezoelectric layer showing powerful performance
The piezoelectric effect, the conversion of mechanical energy to electrical energy can serve as the basictechnology for many applications such as energy harvesting sensing and actuating. Currently, the fieldof piezoelectric materials is dominate by lead-based ceramic materials such as lead zirconate titanate(PZT). However, lead is toxic and brittle, emerging the need for alternative lead free, soft, and flexiblepiezoelectric materials with strong piezoelectric performance, especially in the field of bioapplications.Piezoelectric biological materials have attracted significant attention in recent years aspromising alternatives for currently used poisonous piezoelectric materials owing to their strongpiezoelectricity and biocompatibility. Although significant progress has been made toward thefunctionalization of piezoelectric biomaterials, challenges in the formation of well-orderednanostructures limit their application. Using a very simple deposition method for structural alignmentwe were able to fabricate a functional piezoelectric layer with strong piezoelectric performance basedon bio-inspired peptides.
Technology description:
The discovery of robust piezoelectric performance in bio-inspired materials
nanostructures measured by piezo-force microscopy opens an avenue for the development of
environmentally friendly piezoelectric materials to alternate lead based piezoelectric materials. our
group have shown BOC-Dip-Dip to display a piezoelectric charge coefficient d33 of ∼73 pC/N. Such a
remarkable piezoelectric coefficient exceeds that of PVDF polymers and compares well to that of lead
zirconium titanate (PZT) thin films and ribbons, suggesting its promising potential in piezoelectric
applications. However, the major challenge to face is structural alignment. Controlling the organization
of such assemblies is a crucial milestone in engineering applicable piezoelectric materials since the
magnitude of the piezoelectric response is dictated by the molecular organization at the nanoscale. To
overcome this barrier, we have developed a deposition method based on simple drop cast leading to
the formation of dense aligned structures. This piezoelectric active layer can generate almost 2.5V by
a light manual press.
