Microfluidic Synthesis of Polymer Ionic Liquid Gel Beads for Energy Harvesting Applications

Author(s):  
Kaushik A. Kudtarkar ◽  
Thomas W. Smith ◽  
Patricia Iglesias ◽  
Michael J. Schertzer

In the operation of many common devices and processes, more than 60% of consumed energy is wasted in many common processes. These loses come in many forms including heat, friction, and vibration. Energy harvesters are devices that can recapture some of this waste energy and convert it into electrical energy. This work will focus on electrostatic energy harvesting devices that recapture vibrational energy. Electrostatic energy harvesters recapture mechanical energy when a conductive mass translates or deforms in an electric field. Polymer ionic liquid gel beads may serve as a useful replacement for fluid droplets in electrostatic energy harvesters. This work uses a recently developed method for reliable synthesis of polymer gel beads. These beads are synthesized using a micro-reactor, which generates monomeric droplets in a silicon oil carrier fluid. The monomer solution also contains a photoinitiator and cross linker, which enables the monomer to polymerize when exposed to UV light. The present work demonstrates a method to rapidly synthesize uniform beads with a variety of chemical compositions. These chemical compositions can be used to tune the electromechanical properties of the beads to improve performance in applications such as energy harvesting devices.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Rémi Tardiveau ◽  
Frédéric Giraud ◽  
Adrian Amanci ◽  
Francis Dawson ◽  
Christophe Giraud-Audine ◽  
...  

A piezoelectric generator converts mechanical energy into electricity and is used in energy harvesting devices. In this paper, synchronisation conditions in regard to the excitation vibration are studied. We show that a phase shift of ninety degrees between the vibration excitation and the bender’s displacement provides the maximum power from the mechanical excitation. However, the piezoelectric material is prone to power losses; hence the bender’s displacement amplitude is optimised in order to increase the amount of power which is converted into electricity. In the paper, we use active energy harvesting to control the power flow, and all the results are achieved at a frequency of 200 Hz which is well below the generator’s resonant frequency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Hongjun Zhu ◽  
Tao Tang ◽  
Huohai Yang ◽  
Junlei Wang ◽  
Jinze Song ◽  
...  

Flow-induced vibration (FIV) is concerned in a broad range of engineering applications due to its resultant fatigue damage to structures. Nevertheless, such fluid-structure coupling process continuously extracts the kinetic energy from ambient fluid flow, presenting the conversion potential from the mechanical energy to electricity. As the air and water flows are widely encountered in nature, piezoelectric energy harvesters show the advantages in small-scale utilization and self-powered instruments. This paper briefly reviewed the way of energy collection by piezoelectric energy harvesters and the various measures proposed in the literature, which enhance the structural vibration response and hence improve the energy harvesting efficiency. Methods such as irregularity and alteration of cross-section of bluff body, utilization of wake flow and interference, modification and rearrangement of cantilever beams, and introduction of magnetic force are discussed. Finally, some open questions and suggestions are proposed for the future investigation of such renewable energy harvesting mode.


Low-power requirements of contemporary sensing technology attract research on alternate power sources that can replace batteries. Energy harvesters’ function as power sources for sensors and other low-power devices by transducing the ambient energy into usable electrical form. Energy harvesters absorbing the ambient vibrations that have potential to deliver uninterrupted power to sensing nodes installed in remote and vibration rich environments motivate the research in vibrational energy harvesting. Piezoelectric bimorphs have been demonstrating a pre-eminence in converting the mechanical energy in ambient vibrations into electrical energy. Improving the performance of these harvesters is pivotal, as the energy in ambient vibrations is innately low. In this paper, we propose a mechanism namely MultilayerPEHM (Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Model) which helps in converting the waste or unused energy into the useful energy. Multilayer-PEHM contains the various layer, which is placed one over the other, each layer is placed with specific element according to their properties and size, the size of the layer plays an important part for achieving efficiency. Furthermore, this paper presents an audit of the energy available in a vibrating source and design for effective transfer of the energy to harvesters, secondly, design of vibration energy harvesters with a focus to enhance their performance, and lastly, identification of key performance metrics influencing conversion efficiencies and scaling analysis for these acoustic harvesters. Typical vibration levels in stationary installations such as surfaces of blowers and ducts, and in mobile platforms such as light and heavy transport vehicles, are determined by measuring the acceleration signal. The frequency content in the signal is determined from the Fast Fourier Transform.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 5600
Author(s):  
Ali Matin Matin Nazar ◽  
King-James Idala Idala Egbe ◽  
Azam Abdollahi ◽  
Mohammad Amin Hariri-Ardebili

With recent advancements in technology, energy storage for gadgets and sensors has become a challenging task. Among several alternatives, the triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) have been recognized as one of the most reliable methods to cure conventional battery innovation’s inadequacies. A TENG transfers mechanical energy from the surrounding environment into power. Natural energy resources can empower TENGs to create a clean and conveyed energy network, which can finally facilitate the development of different remote gadgets. In this review paper, TENGs targeting various environmental energy resources are systematically summarized. First, a brief introduction is given to the ocean waves’ principles, as well as the conventional energy harvesting devices. Next, different TENG systems are discussed in details. Furthermore, hybridization of TENGs with other energy innovations such as solar cells, electromagnetic generators, piezoelectric nanogenerators and magnetic intensity are investigated as an efficient technique to improve their performance. Advantages and disadvantages of different TENG structures are explored. A high level overview is provided on the connection of TENGs with structural health monitoring, artificial intelligence and the path forward.


Soft Matter ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (36) ◽  
pp. 8492-8505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhishek Sasmal ◽  
Shrabanee Sen ◽  
P. Sujatha Devi

Corona poling improved the energy storage and mechanical energy harvesting performance of PVDF–Bi0.95Ba0.05Fe0.95Zr0.05O3 composite films.


2019 ◽  
Vol 09 (04) ◽  
pp. 1930001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anwesa Mohanty ◽  
Suraj Parida ◽  
Rabindra Kumar Behera ◽  
Tarapada Roy

This study is based on energy harvesting from vibration and deals with the comparison of different techniques. In the present scenario, energy harvesting has drawn the attention of researchers due to a rapid increase in the use of wireless and small-scale devices. So, there is a huge thirst among scientists to develop permanent portable power sources. In the surroundings, a lot of unutilized energy is wasted which can be collected and used for power generation. Research works have been extensively carried out to develop energy harvesting devices catering to the increasing needs of being efficient and economical. Effective energy harvesting mainly depends on the design of the transducer. Different types of design techniques, material properties, and availability of energy harvesters are reviewed in this paper. The paper aims to explore the advantages and limitations of different energy harvesting principles, advances, and findings of the recent past. This study also discusses some of the key ideas for the enhancement of power output. This paper provides a broad view of the energy harvesting system to the learners, which will facilitate them to design more efficient energy harvesting devices by using different principles.


Author(s):  
Hong Goo Yeo ◽  
Charles Yeager ◽  
Xiaokun Ma ◽  
J. Israel Ramirez ◽  
Kaige G. Sun ◽  
...  

The development of self-powered wireless microelectromechanical (MEMS) sensors hinges on the ability to harvest adequate energy from the environment. When solar energy is not available, mechanical energy from ambient vibrations, which are typically low frequency, is of particular interest. Here, higher power levels were approached by better coupling mechanical energy into the harvester, using improved piezoelectric layers, and efficiently extracting energy through the use of low voltage rectifiers. Most of the available research on piezoelectric energy harvesters reports Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) or AlN thin films on Si substrates, which are well-utilized for microfabrication. However, to be highly reliable under large vibrations and impacts, flexible passive layers such as metal foil with high fracture strength would be more desirable than brittle Si substrates for MEMS energy harvesting. In addition, metallic substrates readily enable tuning the resonant frequency down by adding proof masses. In order to extract the maximum power from such a device, a high level of (001) film orientation enables an increase in the energy harvesting figures of merit due to the coupling of strong piezoelectricity and low dielectric permittivity. Strongly {001} oriented PZT could be deposited by chemical solution deposition or RF magnetron sputtering and ex situ annealing on (100) oriented LaNiO3 / HfO2 / Ni foils. The comparatively high thermal expansion coefficient of the Ni facilitates development of a strong out-of-plane polarization. 31 mode cantilever beam energy harvesters were fabricated using strongly {001} textured 1∼3 μm thick PZT films on Ni foils with dielectric permittivity of ∼ 350 and low loss tangent (<2%) at 100 Hz. The resonance frequency of the cantilevers (50∼75 Hz) was tuned by changing the beam size and proof mass. A cantilever beam with 3 μm thickness of PZT film and 0.4 g proof mass exhibited a maximum output power of 64.5 μW under 1 g acceleration vibration with a 100 kΩ load resistance after poling at 50 V (EC ∼ 16 V) for 10 min at room temperature. Under 0.3g acceleration, the average power of the device is 9 μW at a resonance frequency of ∼70 Hz. Excellent agreement between the measured and modeled data was obtained using a linear analytical model for an energy harvesting system, using an Euler-Bernoulli beam model. It was also demonstrated that up to an order of magnitude more power could be harvested by more efficiently utilizing the available strain using a parabolic mode shape for the vibrating structure. Additionally, voltage rectifying electronics in the form of ZnO thin film transistors are deposited directly on the cantilever. This relieves the role of voltage rectification from the interfacing circuitry and provides a technique improved harvesting relative to solid state diode rectification because the turn-on bias can be reduced to zero.


Author(s):  
Benjamin Kuch ◽  
M. Amin Karami

An application of a nonlinear Hybrid Rotary-Translational (HRT) generator is presented. An HRT generator differs from traditional energy harvesting devices in that it has the ability to harvest multi-axis base excitation. The device consists of a pendulum-like system whose rotations are caused by the base excitations. The swinging pendulum is coupled to a direct current micro generator to generate electricity. The considered application is the energy harvesting from heartbeat induced vibrations. The motivation behind studying the effectiveness of this application comes from battery hindrance. The use of relatively large batteries to power pacemakers presents many medical problems, including increasing the size of the device to accommodate the battery causing surgery complications as well as needing periodic battery replacement. An energy harvesting device can eliminate the need for such a battery, relying instead on the power generated by the beating heart. The nonlinearity of the device allows constant power to be generated across a wider range of frequencies (heartbeats per minute). The contractions of the heart are considered to be the base excitations of the device, causing the pendulum to swing. To validate and then optimize the design of the HRT system, the behavior and the power generation of the system will be studied under different parameters: size of generator, mass and length of pendulum components as well as frequency of heart beats (beats per minute). This presents an interesting design problem whose goal is to find the best HRT parameters that would result in generating the sufficient amounts of power required by pacemakers. A method in approximating the nonlinear dynamics of the electro-mechanical energy harvesting system is also presented. By studying the analytical solutions to the nonlinear electromechanical system under a sine wave excitation, we can gain insight into the problem. The extent of this paper will only cover the analytical solution to the vertically excited pendulum. Perturbation methods, specifically the multiple scales method will be employed to study the effects of forcing amplitude and frequency on the system behavior and the energy harvesting system.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah S Leese ◽  
Miroslav Tejkl ◽  
Laia Vilar ◽  
Leopold Georgi ◽  
Hin Chun Yau ◽  
...  

There are a range of promising applications for devices that can convert mechanical energy from their local environment into useful electrical energy. Here, mechanical energy harvesting devices have been developed...


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