Recently, interest in technology for eco-friendly energy harvesting has been increasing. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is one of the most fascinating materials that has been used in energy harvesting technology as well as micro-filters by utilizing an electrostatic effect. To enhance the performance of the electrostatic effect-based nanogenerator, most studies have focused on enlarging the contact surface area of the pair of materials with different triboelectric series. For this reason, one-dimensional nanofibers have been widely used recently. In order to realize practical energy-harvesting applications, PVDF nanofibers are modified by enlarging their contact surface area, modulating the microstructure of the surface, and maximizing the fraction of the β-phase by incorporating additives or forming composites with inorganic nanoparticles. Among them, nanocomposite structures incorporating various nanoparticles have been widely investigated to increase the β-phase through strong hydrogen bonding or ion-dipole interactions with -CF₂/CH₂- of PVDF as well as to enhance the mechanical strength. In this study, we report the recent advances in the nanocomposite structure of PVDF nanofibers and inorganic nanopowders.

Layered-double hydroxide (LDH)-based nanostructures offer the two-fold advantage of being active catalysts with incredibly large specific surface areas. As such, they have been studied extensively over the last decade and applied in roles as diverse as light source, catalyst, energy storage mechanism, absorber, and anion exchanger. They exhibit a unique lamellar structure consisting of a wide variety of combinations of metal cations and various anions, which determine their physical and chemical performances, and make them a popular research topic. Many reviewed papers deal with these unique properties, synthetic methods, and applications. Most of them, however, are focused on the form-factor of nanopowder, as well as on the control of morphologies via one-step synthetic methods. LDH nanostructures need to be easy to control and fabricate on rigid substrates such as metals, semiconductors, oxides, and insulators, to facilitate more viable applications of these nanostructures to various solid-state devices. In this review, we explore ways to grow and control the various LDH nanostructures on rigid substrates.

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• Review of Domestic Research Trends on Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) Materials: Based on Research Articles in Korean Citation Index (KCI)
  Seon Yong Lee, YoungJae Kim, Young Jae Lee
  Economic and Environmental Geology.2023; 56(1): 23.     CrossRef

Porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) thin films are fabricated by spin-coating using a dispersion solution containing PTFE powders, and their crystalline properties are investigated after thermal annealing at various temperatures ranging from 300 to 500°C. Before thermal annealing, the film is densely packed and consists of many granular particles 200-300 nm in diameter. However, after thermal annealing, the film contains many voids and fibrous grains on the surface. In addition, the film thickness decreases after thermal annealing owing to evaporation of the surfactant, binder, and solvent composing the PTFE dispersion solution. The film thickness is systematically controlled from 2 to 6.5 μm by decreasing the spin speed from 1,500 to 500 rpm. A triboelectric nanogenerator is fabricated by spin-coating PTFE thin films onto polished Cu foils, where they act as an active layer to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy. A triboelectric nanogenerator consisting of a PTFE layer and Al metal foil pair shows typical output characteristics, exhibiting positive and negative peaks during applied strain and relief cycles due to charging and discharging of electrical charge carriers. Further, the voltage and current outputs increase with increasing strain cycle owing to accumulation of electrical charge carriers during charge-discharge.

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• Recent Development in Performance Enhancement of PVDF-Nanopowder Composite-based Energy Harvesting Devices
  Geon-Ju Choi, Il-Kyu Park
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2020; 27(3): 247.     CrossRef

We report on an all-solution-processed hydrothermal method to control the morphology of ZnO nanostructures on Si substrates from three-dimensional hemispherical structures to two-dimensional thin film layers, by controlling the seed layer and the molar contents of surfactants during their primary growth. The size and the density of the seed layer, which is composed of ZnO nanodots, change with variation in the solute concentration. The ZnO nanodots act as heterogeneous nucleation sites for the main ZnO nanostructures. When the seed layer concentration is increased, the ZnO nanostructures change from a hemispherical shape to a thin film structure, formed by densely packed ZnO hemispheres. In addition, the morphology of the ZnO layer is systematically controlled by using trisodium citrate, which acts as a surfactant to enhance the lateral growth of ZnO crystals rather than a preferential one-dimensional growth along the c-direction. X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy results reveal that the ZnO structure is wurtzite and did not incorporate any impurities from the surfactants used in this study.

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• La-doped p-type ZnO nanowire with enhanced piezoelectric performance for flexible nanogenerators
  Leeseung Kang, HyeLan An, Ji Young Park, Myung Hwan Hong, Sahn Nahm, Chan Gi Lee
  Applied Surface Science.2019; 475: 969.     CrossRef

We report on the successful fabrication of ZnO nanorod (NR)/polystyrene (PS) nanosphere hybrid nanostructure by combining drop coating and hydrothermal methods. Especially, by adopting an atomic layer deposition method for seed layer formation, very uniform ZnO NR structure is grown on the complicated PS surfaces. By using zinc nitrate hexahydrate [Zn(NO₃)₂ ·6H₂O] and hexamine [(CH₂)₆N₄] as sources for Zn and O in hydrothermal process, hexagonal shaped single crystal ZnO NRs are synthesized without dissolution of PS in hydrothermal solution. X-ray diffraction results show that the ZnO NRs are grown along c-axis with single crystalline structure and there is no trace of impurities or unintentionally formed intermetallic compounds. Photoluminescence spectrum measured at room temperature for the ZnO NRs on flat Si and PS show typical two emission bands, which are corresponding to the band-edge and deep level emissions in ZnO crystal. Based on these structural and optical investigations, we confirm that the ZnO NRs can be grown well even on the complicated PS surface morphology to form the chestnut-shaped hybrid nanostructures for the energy generation and storage applications.

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• Synthesis of Planar-Type ZnO Powder in Non-Nano Scale Dimension and Its Application in Ultraviolet Protection Cosmetics
  Jung-Hwan Lee, Gun-Sub Lee, Eung-Nam Park, Dong-Hyeon Jo, So-Won Kim, Hee-Chul Lee
  Materials.2023; 16(5): 2099.     CrossRef
• Rapid consolidation of nanostuctured WC-FeAl3 by pulsed current activated heating and its mechanical properties
  In-Jin Shon, Seok-Jae Lee
  International Journal of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials.2017; 65: 69.     CrossRef
• Fabrication of a Graphene/ZnO based p-n junction device and its ultraviolet photoresponse properties
  Young-Tae Kwon, Sung-Oong Kang, Ji-Ae Cheon, Yoseb Song, Jong-Jin Lee, Yong-Ho Choa
  Applied Surface Science.2017; 415: 2.     CrossRef
• Morphology Control of ZnO Nanostructures by Surfactants During Hydrothermal Growth
  Il-Kyu Park
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2016; 23(4): 270.     CrossRef

We report on the succesful fabrication of ZnO nanorod (NR)-based robust piezoelectric nanogenerators (PNGs) by using Cu foil substrate. The ZnO NRs are successfully grown on the Cu foil substrate by using all solution based method, a two step hydrothermal synthesis. The ZnO NRs are grown along c-axis well with an average diameter of 75~80 nm and length of 1~1.5 μm. The ZnO NRs showed abnormal photoluminescence specrta which is attributed from surface plasmon resonance assistant enhancement at specific wavelength. The PNGs on the SUS substrates show typical piezoelectric output performance which showing a frequency dependent voltage enhancement and polarity dependent charging and discharging characteristics. The output voltage range is 0.79~2.28 V with variation of input strain frequency of 1.8~3.9 Hz. The PNG on Cu foil shows reliable output performance even at the operation over 200 times without showing degradation of output voltage. The current output from the PNG is 0.7 μA/cm² which is a typical output range from the ZnO NR-based PNGs. These performance enhancement is attributed from the high flexibility, high electrical conductivity and excellent heat dissipation properties of the Cu foil as a substrate.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by  

• Fabrication of a Graphene/ZnO based p-n junction device and its ultraviolet photoresponse properties
  Young-Tae Kwon, Sung-Oong Kang, Ji-Ae Cheon, Yoseb Song, Jong-Jin Lee, Yong-Ho Choa
  Applied Surface Science.2017; 415: 2.     CrossRef
• Fabrication of Porous Polytetrafluoroethylene thin Film from Powder Dispersion-solution for Energy Nanogenerator Applications
  Il-Kyu Park
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2017; 24(2): 102.     CrossRef
• Morphology Control of ZnO Nanostructures by Surfactants During Hydrothermal Growth
  Il-Kyu Park
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2016; 23(4): 270.     CrossRef
• Fabrication of ZnO Nanorod/polystyrene Nanosphere Hybrid Nanostructures by Hydrothermal Method for Energy Generation Applications
  Seong-Ho Baek, Il-Kyu Park
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2015; 22(6): 391.     CrossRef