Green Fabrication of Freestanding Piezoceramic Films for Energy Harvesting and Virus Detection

Most electronics such as sensors, actuators and energy harvesters need piezoceramic films to interconvert mechanical and electrical energy. Transferring the ceramic films from their growth substrates for assembling electronic devices commonly requires chemical or physical etching, which comes at the sacrifice of the substrate materials, film cracks, and environmental contamination. Here, we introduce a van der Waals stripping method to fabricate large-area and freestanding piezoceramic thin films in a simple, green, and cost-effective manner. The introduction of the quasi van der Waals epitaxial platinum layer enables the capillary force of water to drive the separation process of the film and substrate interface. The fabricated lead-free film, Ba_0.85Ca_0.15Zr_0.1Ti_0.9O₃ (BCZT), shows a high piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ = 209 ± 10 pm V⁻¹ and outstanding flexibility of maximum strain 2%. The freestanding feature enables a wide application scenario, including micro energy harvesting, and covid-19 spike protein detection. We further conduct a life cycle analysis and quantify the low energy consumption and low pollution of the water-based stripping film method. [Media Object not available: see fulltext.] 

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