Influence of bistacked polyvinylidene fluoride-2D Ti₃C₂T_x MXene nanocomposite concentration for solution-processed piezoelectric nanogenerators

Short-circuit electrodes, poor surface contact, and low beta-phase fraction are the common issues researchers face when preparing piezoelectric nanogenerators. To overcome the mentioned issues and further enhance the device operation, we conducted different concentrations of PVDF mixed with a fixed amount of Ti3C2Tx in a bistacked structure. The higher concentration of PVDF with the incorporation of MXene improved the generated open-circuit voltage (V-oc) and short-circuit current (I-sc) due to the appropriate nanocomposite thickness, less nanocomposite surface roughness, nanofillers uniform dispersion, and high beta-phase fraction. At the fixed amount of Ti3C2Tx, the nanocomposite with 17.5 wt% PVDF results in V-oc similar to 6.4 V and I-sc similar to 1.5 mu A, while its beta-phase content is approximately 87%. A substantial beta-phase fraction could be related to the stretched chain alignment of PVDF. This work demonstrates the feasibility of a solution-processed route to fabricate a nanogenerator to realize self-powered electronic gadgets.