Panpan Li

By Melodie Chen-Glasser, Panpan Li, Jeongjae Ryu and Seungbum Hong

This chapter describes the history and development strategy of piezoelectric materials for medical applications. It covers the piezoelectric properties of materials found inside the human body including blood vessels, skin, and bones as well as how the piezoelectricity innate in those materials aids in disease treatment. It also covers piezoelectric materials and their use in medical implants by explaining how piezoelectric materials can be used as sensors and can emulate natural materials. Finally, the possibility of using piezoelectric materials to design medical equipment and how current models can be improved by further research is explored. This review is intended to provide greater understanding of how important piezoelectricity is to the medical industry by describing the challenges and opportunities regarding its future development.

Part of the book: Piezoelectricity

By Jeongjae Ryu, Seongmun Eom, Panpan Li, Chi Hao Liow and Seungbum Hong

This chapter deals with the development of ferroelectric polymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based nanogenerators. Due to its inherent flexibility, PVDF has been studied for application in nanogenerators. We first introduce PVDF and its copolymers, and briefly discuss their properties. Then, we discuss fabrication methods, including solution casting, spin coating, template-assisted method, electrospinning, thermal drawing, and dip coating. Using these methods, a wide variety of ferroelectric polymer structures can be fabricated. In addition to the performance enhancements provided by fabrication methods, the performance of PVDF-based nanogenerators has been improved by incorporating fillers that can alter the factors affecting the performance. Next, we review energy sources that can be exploited by PVDF-based nanogenerators to harvest electricity. The abundant energy sources in the environment include sound, wind flow, and thermal fluctuation. Finally, we discuss implantable PVDF-based nanogenerators. Another advantage of PVDF is its biocompatibility, which enables implantable nanogenerators. We believe that this chapter can also be helpful to researchers who study sensors and actuators as well as nanogenerators.

Part of the book: Nanogenerators

By Panpan Li, Jeongjae Ryu and Seungbum Hong

Bodily movements can be used to harvest electrical energy via nanogenerators and thereby enable self-powered healthcare devices. In this chapter, first we summarize the requirements of nanogenerators for the applications in biomedical fields. Then, the current applications of nanogenerators in the biomedical field are introduced, including self-powered sensors for monitoring body activities; pacemakers; cochlear implants; stimulators for cells, tissues, and the brain; and degradable electronics. Remaining challenges to be solved in this field and future development directions are then discussed, such as increasing output performance, further miniaturization, encapsulation, and improving stability. Finally, future outlooks for nanogenerators in healthcare electronics are reviewed.

Part of the book: Nanogenerators