Energy Harvesting Performance of Printed Barium Titanate Nanocomposites

Development of nanostructured devices for sensing, energy storage, actuating, and energy harvesting has attracted many researchers. The most common type of functional nanostructures is piezoelectric nanomaterials. Regardless of numerous studies in this area, there is a need for rapid fabrication of nanostructured devices, or simply functional nanocomposites. Here we present a simple, scalable fabrication technique for additive manufacturing of nanocomposite energy harvesting devices composed of barium titanate nanowires. Details on hydrothermal synthesis of barium titanate (BaTiO₃) nanowires and printable inks, manufacturing process, and energy harvesting performance of the printed devices are presented here. The experimental results suggest that additive manufacturing of functional nanocomposites allows controlling the microstructures and enhancing device performance.