Elastic piezoelectric aerogels from isotropic and directionally ice-templated cellulose nanocrystals: comparison of structure and energy harvesting

We report the preparation of highly compressible and elastic piezoelectric aerogels of carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). Aqueous CNC dispersions containing polyethyleneimine and crosslinker were frozen isotropically to yield isotropic aerogels, while oriented aerogels were prepared by directional freezing. These aerogels were highly flexible and porous (similar to 85% void fraction), exhibiting greater than 90% recovery at 50% compressive strain even after 100 compression-decompression cycles. Since such aerogels with low bulk modulus and high anisotropy would be an ideal platform for leveraging the piezoelectric properties of CNCs, we used them to prepare piezoelectric nanogenerator devices and determined their energy transduction behavior. Anisotropic aerogels led to an enhanced open-circuit voltage of 840 mV (at similar to 8 N applied force), which is over 2.6 times higher than isotropic aerogels (320 mV). The energy density of anisotropic aerogels was around 52 nW/cm(2), representing outstanding piezoelectric performance for cellulose-based aerogels. Such aerogels with high compressibility, elastic recovery and exceptional piezoelectric performance could have potential applications in sensors, wearable electronics, etc.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates the preparation method of piezoelectric aerogels and their exceptional performance in potential applications. The highly compressible and elastic aerogels exhibit low bulk modulus and high anisotropy, showing outstanding piezoelectric properties.