(K,Na)NbO3 nanofiber-based self-powered sensors for accurate detection of dynamic strain.

A self-powered active strain sensor based on well-aligned (K,Na)NbO3 piezoelectric nanofibers is successfully fabricated through the electrospinning and polymer packaging process. The device exhibits a fast, active response to dynamic strain by generating impulsive voltage signal that is dependent on the amplitude of the dynamic strains and the vibration frequency. When the frequency is fixed at 1 Hz, the peak to peak value of the voltage increases from ∼1 to ∼40 mV, and the strain changes from 1 to 6%. Furthermore, the output voltage is linearly increased by an order of magnitude with the frequency changing from 0.2 to 5 Hz under the same strain amplitude. The influence of frequency on the output voltage can be further enhanced at higher strain amplitude. This phenomenon is attributed to the increased generating rate of piezoelectric charges under higher strain rate of the nanofibers. By counting the pulse separation of the voltage peaks, the vibration frequency is synchronously measured during the sensing process. The accuracy of the sensing results can be improved by calibration according to the frequency-dependent sensing behavior.