Quantitative Characterization of Impact‐Induced Energy Harvesting: A Case Study on Stretchable Piezoelectric Thin Films on Different Substrates

Abstract Piezoelectric materials represent a great alternative to power small electronic devices with a lower environmental impact than conventional power sources. Despite significant progress on the subject, most studies focus on energy harvesting from vibrating systems. Other publications focus on the design of the piezoelectric devices, but they are hardly comparable in terms of the amount of energy collected. In this paper a new method is presented to quantitatively characterize piezoelectric energy harvesters under a single mechanical impact using a custom Charpy‐like test bench. The method is illustrated by studying screen‐printed piezoelectric thin films of poly(vinylidenefluoride‐co‐trifluoroethylene) P(VDF‐TrFE), with different substrates acting as mechanical support. Devices printed on stretchable substrates allowing large deformation lead to overall better energy harvesting performance. However it is also demonstrated that the nature of the substrate influences the material properties of the piezoelectric film despite identical fabrication process.