Flexible piezoelectric polymer composites with magnetic-field-oriented BNNS and imprinted micropillars for self-powered sensors

Improving the response of sensors is often hindered by inadequate molding effects and complex manufacturing processes. Here, combining a simple magnetic-field-orientation and nano-imprinting process, a micropillar arrayed sensor was successfully fabricated, meanwhile, the boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS) were oriented in the polymer matrix. Due to the strain confinement effect, the outputted voltage of m-BNNS/PDMS composite film (SA_BNNS) demonstrated an improvement of 115.5% compared to the film sample with randomly dispersed nanoparticles. And the device showed a high sensitivity and rapid response capability to human motion. Furthermore, the oriented arrangement of m-BNNS and the enlarged heat dissipation area of the micropillar array contribute to the optimized thermal conductivity of the device.