Coalition of Thermo–Opto–Electric Effects in Ferroelectrics for Enhanced Cyclic Multienergy Conversion

Abstract

The concept of multisource energy harvesting (of light, kinetic, and thermal energy) using a single material has recently been proposed. Herein, the realization of this novel concept is discussed and insight into the electric field‐assisted modulation of photocurrent and pyroelectric current in a bandgap‐engineered ferroelectric KNBNNO ((K0.5Na0.5)NbO3‐2 mol% Ba(Ni0.5Nb0.5)O3−δ) is provided. Thereafter, direct current (DC) electrical modulation under the simultaneous inputs of light and thermal changes for photovoltaic and pyroelectric effects, respectively, is utilized to achieve several orders of increase in the output current density. This is attributed to a light‐assisted increase in the material's electrical conductivity and ferroelectric photovoltaic effect. The phenomena of electro–optic and thermo–electro–optic DC modulations are further used to propose two novel energy‐conversion cycles. The performance of both the proposed energy conversion cycles is compared with that of the Olsen cycle. The electro–optic and thermo–electro–optic cycles are found to harvest 7–10 times more energy than the Olsen cycle alone, respectively. Moreover, both energy‐conversion cycles offer broader flexibility and ease in operating conditions, thus paving a way toward the practical applications of multisource energy harvesting with a single material for enhanced energy‐conversion capability and device/system compactness.

Advanced Design of Light‐Assisted Nanogenerators with Multifunctional Perovskites

“…Obviously, significant progress recently has been made in exploring the photo-pyroelectric coupling effects in perovskites to improve performance of PyENGs or self-powered photodetectors. [165][166][167][168][169][170] However, limited by current state of theory and technology, there are still some issues worth considering: 1) The mechanism of photo-pyroelectric coupling effect needs further improvements to clearly elaborate the interaction between photovoltaic effect and pyroelectric/ferroelectric effect. The reason is that there are still some controversies in ferroelectricity study of perovskites, such as the principles of ferroelectric photovoltaic effect of oxide perovskites (Schottky junction, domain wall theory, etc.…”

Filterless Visible‐Range Color Sensing and Wavelength‐Selective Photodetection Based on Barium/Nickel Codoped Bandgap‐Engineered Potassium Sodium Niobate Ferroelectric Ceramics

“…The rationale of studying the specific composition in this work is that the family of Ba-and Ni-codoped (K,Na)NbO 3 (referred to as KNBNNO, KNN-BNN, or KNN-BNNO) has been systematically and thoroughly optimized from several chemical and physical aspects in our previous works. [13][14][15][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] Thus, it is much better known than other bandgap-engineered counterparts. In brief, two approaches could achieve to reduce the bandgap and retain reasonable ferroelectricity of the widely researched parental composition, (K,Na)NbO 3 , simultaneously.…”

Low‐Pressure Mechanical Switching of Ferroelectric Domains in PbZr0.48Ti0.52O3

“…Scanning probe‐based investigations of mechanical behavior in ferroelectrics, [ 12 ] especially localized mechanical writing of nanoscale domains and mechanical erasing of electrically written domains [ 1 ] provide a suitable platform for further investigation of mechanoelectric devices [ 13 , 14 ] and concepts. [ 15 , 16 ] Ultralow pressure mechanical writing and noncontact reading might lead to new low energy electronics concepts and information storage energy costs of attojoule/bit, which has been explored for example through electrical control of magnetism concepts. [ 17 ]…”