Efficiently Fabricated Core-Sheath Piezoelectric Sensor Based on PVDF Microfibrillar Bundle

With the rapid development of information technology (e.g., Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI)), piezoelectric sensor (i.e., piezoelectric nanogenerator, PENG) receives an increasing number attention in the field of self-powered wearable devices. Taking piezoelectric fiber as an example, it shows promising application for wearable devices owing to its light weight and high flexibility compared with block electronic devices. However, it still remains a challenge to fabricate low-cost and high-performance piezoelectric fiber via a large-scale but efficient method. In this study, via extrusion molding and leaching, a core-sheath piezoelectric sensor is facilely fabricated, whose core and sheath layer are respectively slender steel wire (i.e., electrode) and PVDF microfibrillar bundle (PMB) (i.e., piezoelectric layer). Such piezoelectric sensor shows decent output performance in both pressing (12.3 V) and bending (0.32 V) mode. Meanwhile, it possesses sensitive stress responsiveness when serving for self-powered sensing. Furthermore, such piezoelectric sensors can realize wearable signal transmission and human motion monitoring, showing promising potential for wearable devices in the future. This work proposes a large-scale but efficient method for fabricating high-performance PVDF microfibril based piezoelectric fiber, opening a new pathway to develop self-powered sensors following the concept of polymer "structuring" processing.