3D Printing of Flexible BaTiO3/Polydimethylsiloxane Piezocomposite with Aligned Particles for Enhanced Energy Harvesting

With the rapid development of human-machine interactions and artificial intelligence, the demand for wearable electronic devices is increasing uncontrollably all over the world; however, an unsustainable power supply for such sensors continues to restrict their applications. In the present work, piezoelectric barium titanate (BaTiO₃) ceramic powder with excellent properties was prepared from milled precursors through a solid-state reaction. To fabricate a flexible device, the as-prepared BaTiO₃ powder was mixed with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer. The BaTiO₃/PDMS ink with excellent rheological properties was extruded smoothly by direct ink writing technology (DIW). BaTiO₃ particles were aligned due to the shear stress effect during the printing process. Subsequently, the as-printed composite was assembled into a sandwich-type device for effective energy harvesting. It was observed that the maximum output voltage and current of this device reached 68 V and 720 nA, respectively, for a BaTiO₃ content of 6 vol %. Therefore, the material extrusion-based three-dimensional (3D) printing technique can be used to prepare flexible piezoelectric composites for efficient energy harvesting.