An Investigation of 3D Printed Materials as Electrets

Abstract

3D printing is proposed for creating, optimizing, and integrating novel electret materials and composites. Additive manufacturing techniques have moved from simple prototyping to heterogeneous structuring and integration and have begun fabricating multifunctional sensing and harvesting materials like piezoelectric polymers and composites. Electrets can be made out of a variety of materials and offer piezoelectric coefficients orders of magnitude higher than traditional ceramic and polymer piezoelectric materials without requiring specific crystalline phases.Through this work, I will demonstrate the first completely 3D printed piezoelectric material using a commercially available FFF printer. I will be investigating the effects of additive manufacturing parameters such as extrusion temperature and infill on the electret properties of printed materials. Finally, I will study novel cheap and renewable materials and composites such as delignified wood cellulose for their potential electret capabilities.