Flexible Molecular Piezoelectric Device

Since its discovery in 1880, piezoelectricity has found a use in a wide variety of applications, including the production and detection of sound, generation of high voltages, ultrafine focusing of optical assemblies, and as the basis for scanning probe microscopy and the time reference source in quartz watches. The ubiquity and broad applicability of piezoelectric devices contribute to a global demand of nearly $15 billion, but the vast majority are lead-based ceramics, posing limits in both terms of toxicity and rigidity.

Description

By depositing conductive electrodes onto silicon-based organic polymers or other elastomeric polymer films, researchers have created an inherently flexible and non-toxic piezoelectric device. Piezoelectric oligopeptides are self-assembled in a water solution of the peptide in just minutes; contacting one surface with another with opposite surface directionality creates a bilayer device that generates measurable electrical current in response to applied force.

Applications

· Sensors for touch, force, impact, or vibration
· Energy harvesting
· Microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical systems
· Vibrational damping
· Ultrasound microphones
· Sonar
· Speakers
· Providing a flexible, inexpensive, and non-toxic alternative to current piezoelectricity-based devices

Advantages

· Compared to traditional ceramic piezoelectric devices, this fabrication method produces devices that are polymer-based and inherently flexible
· Non-toxic and biodegradable
· Small-scale—active layer is only a few nanometers thick
· Inexpensive and easy to fabricate
· Simple to pattern for ultrasonic microphones or speakers
· Does not require electrical poling

Invention Readiness

Prototype

IP Status

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20140375172A1

Related Publication(s)

Petroff, C. A., Cassone, G., Šponer, J., & Hutchison, G. R. (2021). Intrinsically Polar Piezoelectric Self‐Assembled Oligopeptide Monolayers. Advanced Materials, 33(17). https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202007486

Petroff, C. A., Bina, T. F., & Hutchison, G. R. (2019). Highly Tunable Molecularly Doped Flexible Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Foam Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2(9), 6484–6489. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.9b01061

Quan, X., Madura, J. D., & Hutchison, G. R. (2017). Self-Assembled Monolayer Piezoelectrics: Electric-Field Driven Conformational Changes (Version 2). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.1706.08993

Moody, M. J., Marvin, C. W., & Hutchison, G. R. (2016). Molecularly-doped polyurethane foams with massive piezoelectric response. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 4(20), 4387–4392. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6tc00613b