Microfluidic fabrication of β-phase enriched poly(vinylidene fluoride) microfibers toward flexible piezoelectric sensor

β-phase enriched piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) films/fibers are often prepared by high-energy costing methods, including mechanical stretching, high-electric field or electrospinning. In this study, PVDF piezoelectric microfibers, for the first time, were prepared by microfluidic spinning technology. The β-phase enriched PVDF microfibers with various diameters could be easily obtained inside the microfluidic channel due to the mass transfer induced phase inversion of the inner PVDF solution. The influence of diameter of the fibers, PVDF concentration of the inner phase and water content of the outer phase on the β-phase content and crystallinity degree of the obtained fibers was studied in detail. The obtained β-phase enriched fiber was weaved into meshes. Flexible piezoelectric fabrics were then developed based on these meshes, and further used as in-situ and real time human motion monitoring. This simple and effective strategy provides a promising microfluidic spinning technique toward the development of functional microfibers and wearable piezoelectric sensors, which may also give some implies for the industrial wet-spinning of piezoelectric PVDF fibers in the future.