scholarly journals Synthesis of ZnO Nanorod Film Deposited by Spraying with Application for Flexible Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Microdevices

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (23) ◽  
pp. 6759
Author(s):  
Ernesto A. Elvira-Hernández ◽  
Jorge Romero-García ◽  
Antonio Ledezma-Pérez ◽  
Agustín L. Herrera-May ◽  
Ernesto Hernández-Hernández ◽  
...  

Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things have significantly increased the use of sensors and electronic products based on flexible substrates, which require electrical energy for their performance. This electrical energy can be supplied by piezoelectric vibrational energy harvesting (pVEH) devices. These devices can convert energy from ambient mechanical excitations into electrical energy. In order to develop, these devices require piezoelectric films fabricated with a simple and low-cost process. In this work, we synthesize ZnO nanorod film by a solvothermal method and deposit by spraying on ITO (indium-tin-oxide)/PET (polyethylene terephthalate) flexible substrate for a pVEH microdevice. The results of the characterization of the ZnO nanorod film using X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirm the typical reflections for this type of nanomaterial (JCPDS 36-145). Based on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images, the size of the nanorod film is close to 1380 nm, and the average diameter is 221 ± 67 nm. In addition, the morphological characteristics of the ZnO nanorod film are obtained using atomic force microscopy (AFM) tapping images. The pVEH microdevice has a resonant frequency of 37 Hz, a generated voltage and electrical power of 9.12 V and 6.67 μW, respectively, considering a load resistance of 107.7 kΩ and acceleration of 1.5 g. The ZnO nanorod film may be applied to pVEH microdevices with flexible substrates using a low-cost and easy fabrication process.

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mushtaque Hussain ◽  
Mazhar Ali Abbasi ◽  
Azam Khan ◽  
Omer Nur ◽  
Magnus Willander

AbstractThe step toward the fabrication of nanodevices with low cost and improved performance is of high demand; therefore, in the present study, different flexible substrates like common paper, textile fabric, plastic and aluminum foil have been utilized to harvest electrical energy. ZnO nanorods (NRs) were grown by using low-temperature aqueous chemical growth method. The obtained ZnO NRs were highly dense, well aligned, uniformly distributed over the substrates and exhibited good crystal quality. The structural study was carried out by using X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The piezoelectric properties of ZnO NRs were investigated by the help of an atomic force microscope using contact mode. The measurements of generated piezoelectricity were around 16.2 mV, 23.2 mV, 38.5 mV and 43.3 mV for common paper, textile fabric, plastic and aluminum foil, respectively. This investigation is an important step in order to study the effect of different substrates influencing the magnitude of the output voltage under identical growth and measurement conditions. We expect that this study will help identify the most suitable flexible substrate for harvesting energy. It also offers a promising alternative powering source for the next generation nanodevices using non-conventional substrates like aluminum foil. Moreover, the use of aluminum foil as flexible and low cost substrate may pave the way to develop devices in different fields including energy harvesting.


MRS Advances ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (56) ◽  
pp. 3441-3446 ◽  
Author(s):  
William G. Kaval ◽  
Robert A. Lake ◽  
Ronald A. Coutu

ABSTRACTResearch of electrostrictive polymers has generated new opportunities for harvesting energy from the surrounding environment and converting it into usable electrical energy. Electroactive polymer (EAP) research is one of the new opportunities for harvesting energy from the natural environment and converting it into usable electrical energy. Piezoelectric ceramic based energy harvesting devices tend to be unsuitable for low-frequency mechanical excitations such as human movement. Organic polymers are typically softer and more flexible therefore translated electrical energy output is considerably higher under the same mechanical force. In addition, cantilever geometry is one of the most used structures in piezoelectric energy harvesters, especially for mechanical energy harvesting from vibrations. In order to further lower the resonance frequency of the cantilever microstructure, a proof mass can be attached to the free end of the cantilever. Mechanical analysis of an experimental bimorph structure was provided and led to key design rules for post-processing steps to control the performance of the energy harvester. In this work, methods of materials processing and the mechanical to electrical conversion of vibrational energy into usable energy were investigated. Materials such as polyvinyledenedifluoridetetra-fluoroethylene P(VDF-TrFE) copolymer films (1um thick or less) were evaluated and presented a large relative permittivity and greater piezoelectric β-phase without stretching. Further investigations will be used to identify suitable micro-electromechanical systems (MEMs) structures given specific types of low-frequency mechanical excitations (10-100Hz).


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Funda Demir ◽  
Mustafa Anutgan

The electrical energy production capability of bimorph (PbxX1-x)(ZryTizY1-y-z) fiber composite piezoelectric transducer has been investigated for energy harvesting applications. The material has been analyzed under different frequencies, bending amounts, and temperatures. The operating conditions for maximum electrical energy outcome have been determined. The natural frequencies of oscillations in the macro dimensions have been found to be inversely proportional to the length of the material. On the other hand, the voltage output with respect to the oscillation frequency exhibits an interesting behavior such that the characteristic curve shifts to higher frequencies as the bending radius is decreased. This behavior has been interpreted as a result of possible overtone transitions of the oscillations to a stiffer mode. The increasing temperature has been observed to have a negative effect on the piezoelectric energy harvesting property. When the determined optimum conditions were utilized, the amount of electrical energy stored in 6300 s by an energy harvester circuitry has been found to be 0.8 J.


2012 ◽  
Vol 476-478 ◽  
pp. 1336-1340
Author(s):  
Kai Feng Li ◽  
Rong Liu ◽  
Lin Xiang Wang

The concept of energy harvesting works towards developing self-powered devices that do not require replaceable power supplies. Energy scavenging devices are designed to capture the ambient energy surrounding the electronics and convert it into usable electrical energy. A number of sources of harvestable ambient energy exist, including waste heat, vibration, electromagnetic waves, wind, flowing water, and solar energy. While each of these sources of energy can be effectively used to power remote sensors, the structural and biological communities have placed an emphasis on scavenging vibrational energy with ferroelectric materials. Ferroelectric materials have a crystalline structure that provide a unique ability to convert an applied electrical potential into a mechanical strain or vice versa. Based on the properties of the material, this paper investigates the technique of power harvesting and storage.


Author(s):  
Saman Farhangdoust ◽  
Claudia Mederos ◽  
Behrouz Farkiani ◽  
Armin Mehrabi ◽  
Hossein Taheri ◽  
...  

Abstract This paper presents a creative energy harvesting system using a bimorph piezoelectric cantilever-beam to power wireless sensors in an IoT network for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester (BPEH) comprises a cantilever beam as a substrate sandwiched between two piezoelectric layers to remarkably harness ambient vibrations of an inclined stay cable and convert them into electrical energy when the cable is subjected to a harmonic acceleration. To investigate and design the bridge energy harvesting system, a field measurement was required for collecting cable vibration data. The results of a non-contact laser vibrometer is used to remotely measure the dynamic characteristics of the inclined cables. A finite element study is employed to simulate a 3-D model of the proposed BPEH by COMSOL Multiphasics. The FE modelling results showed that the average power generated by the BPEH excited by a harmonic acceleration of 1 m/s2 at 1 Hz is up to 614 μW which satisfies the minimum electric power required for the sensor node in the proposed IoT network. In this research a LoRaWAN architecture is also developed to utilize the BPEH as a sustainable and sufficient power resource for an IoT platform which uses wireless sensor networks installed on the bridge stay cables to collect and remotely transfer bridge health monitoring data over the bridge in a low-power manner.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (18) ◽  
pp. 3572-3581
Author(s):  
Suihan Liu ◽  
Ali Imani Azad ◽  
Rigoberto Burgueño

Piezoelectric energy harvesting from ambient vibrations is well studied, but harvesting from quasi-static responses is not yet fully explored. The lack of attention is because quasi-static actions are much slower than the resonance frequency of piezoelectric oscillators to achieve optimal outputs; however, they can be a common mechanical energy resource: from large civil structure deformations to biomechanical motions. The recent advances in bio-micro-electro-mechanical systems and wireless sensor technologies are motivating the study of piezoelectric energy harvesting from quasi-static conditions for low-power budget devices. This article presents a new approach of using quasi-static deformations to generate electrical power through an axially compressed bilaterally constrained strip with an attached piezoelectric layer. A theoretical model was developed to predict the strain distribution of the strip’s buckled configuration for calculating the electrical energy generation. Results from an experimental investigation and finite element simulations are in good agreement with the theoretical study. Test results from a prototyped device showed that a peak output power of 1.33 μW/cm2 was generated, which can adequately provide power supply for low-power budget devices. And a parametric study was also conducted to provide design guidance on selecting the dimensions of a device based on the external embedding structure.


Nanoscale ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (43) ◽  
pp. 20527-20533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanggon Kim ◽  
Gerardo Ico ◽  
Yaocai Bai ◽  
Steve Yang ◽  
Jung-Ho Lee ◽  
...  

Magneto–mechano–electrical energy conversion in poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) piezoelectric nanofibers integrated with magnetic nanoparticles in a particle-shape dependent manner.


Author(s):  
Zheqi Lin ◽  
Hae Chang Gea ◽  
Shutian Liu

Converting ambient vibration energy into electrical energy using piezoelectric energy harvester has attracted much interest in the past decades. In this paper, topology optimization is applied to design the optimal layout of the piezoelectric energy harvesting devices. The objective function is defined as to maximize the energy harvesting performance over a range of ambient vibration frequencies. Pseudo excitation method (PEM) is applied to analyze structural stationary random responses. Sensitivity analysis is derived by the adjoint method. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.


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