Large-Scale Nanofiber Manufacturing| Molecular Ferroelectrics for Highly Sensitive DetectionToward Low-Frequency Sound Recognition

 Southeast University's Academician Xiong Rengen & Soochow University's Professor Zou Guifu (National Outstanding Young Scholar) Adv. Mater.: Molecular Ferroelectric for High-Sensitivity Detection of Low-Frequency Sound

Challenge: Human hearing cannot sensitively detect sounds below 100 Hz, which affects physical health and causes dizziness, headaches and nausea. Due to low piezoelectric coefficients or high elastic modulus of materials, piezoelectric acoustic sensors still lack sensitivity to low-frequency sounds.

Approach: Academician Xiong Rengen of Southeast University and Professor Zou Guifu (National Outstanding Young Scholar) of Soochow University used electrospinning to prepare ferroelectric [(CH3)3NCH2Cl]CdCl3 (MF)/PVP composite fibers as piezoelectric active layers, employing molecular materials to construct piezoelectric acoustic sensors for low-frequency sound detection.

Innovation 1: The sensor exhibits high sensitivity (47.43 mV Pa-1 cm-2) at 87 Hz with excellent frequency resolution (up to 0.1 Hz). This helps accurately distinguish and detect low-frequency sounds, suitable for noise detection applications.

Innovation 2: The sensor can differentiate various musical instruments and heartbeats, and identify audio signals. This research highlights the potential of molecular ferroelectric materials in piezoelectric acoustic device applications, including noise detection, health monitoring and human-machine interaction.