Energy harvesting using hybridization of dielectric nanocomposites and electrets

Abstract

Electrostrictive polymers have been investigated as electroactive materials for electromechanical energy harvesting. This kind of material is isotope, i.e. there is no permanent polarization compared with piezoelectric material, so in order to ensure its polarization and scavenging energy, the electrostrictive polymers need necessarily an application of a static field. To avoid this problem, we used the hybridization of electrostrictive polymer with electret. The present work aims an analytical modeling for predicting the power convert when the material was mechanically excited. The study was carried out on polyurethane and terpolymer [P(VDF-TrFE-CFE)] films, either without filler or filled with carbon nanopowder. Experimental measurements of the harvested power showed a good agreement with the theoretical behavior predicted by the proposed model. It was also shown that the incorporation of nanofillers increased the power harvested from 5.22 · 10 À2 to 1.498 · 10 À1 μW cm À3 and from 6.87 · 10 À1 to 1.76 μW cm À3 in polyurethane and in the terpolymer, respectively.

Energy Harvesting Research: The Road from Single Source to Multisource

“…Different kinetic energy conversion methods in combination are able to compensate each other, thus boosting the output power. Various types of kinetic (including fluidic) hybridization involving two energy conversion effects have been developed, including piezoelectric–electromagnetic, electrostrictive–electrets, piezoelectric–triboelectric, electromagnetic–triboelectric, piezoelectric–electrostatic, triboelectric–electrostatic, and piezoelectric–electrostrictive . Hybridization involving three kinetic energy conversion effects, piezoelectric–electromagnetic–triboelectric, has also been reported.…”

Polymer ferroelectret based on polypropylene foam: piezoelectric properties prediction using dynamic mechanical analysis

“…Later on, cellular structures were introduced into polymers to produce piezoelectric materials . Piezoelectric devices made from cellular polymer films, in comparison with other piezoelectric materials based on crystals such as quartz, topaz, and special ceramics, have several advantages such as low material costs and the possibility to produce flexible films with low density . Hence, these new materials are under study for several applications such as actuators, vibration control, energy conversion devices, speakers, microphones, and shock sensors …”

“…[4,5] Piezoelectric devices made from cellular polymer films, in comparison with other piezoelectric materials based on crystals such as quartz, topaz, and special ceramics, have several advantages such as low material costs and the possibility to produce flexible films with low density. [6][7][8] Hence, these new materials are under study for several applications such as actuators, vibration control, energy conversion devices, speakers, microphones, and shock sensors. [7,[9][10][11] So far, different methods such as stretching, [12][13][14][15] closed mold, [16] thermoforming, [17] and foaming [18][19][20] have been used for the production of cellular structures, and these methods have been extensively compared in our previous work.…”

“…[6][7][8] Hence, these new materials are under study for several applications such as actuators, vibration control, energy conversion devices, speakers, microphones, and shock sensors. [7,[9][10][11] So far, different methods such as stretching, [12][13][14][15] closed mold, [16] thermoforming, [17] and foaming [18][19][20] have been used for the production of cellular structures, and these methods have been extensively compared in our previous work. [21] Polymer foams are materials including a solid polymer matrix as the continuous phase and gas bubbles as the dispersed phase.…”

The role of material behavior in the performances of electroactive polymer energy harvesters

“…This is practically achieved by exploiting the deformation‐dependent capacitance of a thin dielectric and deformable membrane, sandwiched between compliant electrodes . It should be remarked that the EAP materials that we take in consideration are not electrostrictive polymers; rather, these materials deform under the action of compressive Coulomb forces that act on the compliant electrodes in the normal direction to the membrane surface.…”