Mechanical energy harvesting using polyurethane/lead zirconate titanate composites

Abstract

The microelectromechanical systems invade gradually the market with applications in many sectors of activity. Developing these micro-systems allows deploying wireless sensor networks that are useful to collect, process and transmit information from their environments without human intervention. In order to keep these micro-devices energetically autonomous without using batteries because they have a limited lifespan, an energy harvesting from ambient vibrations using electrostrictive polymers can be used. These polymers present best features against inorganic materials, as flexibility and low cost. The aims of this paper are manifold. First of all, we made elaboration of the polyurethane/lead zirconate titanate films of 100 µm thickness using a lead zirconate titanate–volume fraction of 50%. Therefore, we did an observation of the lead zirconate titanate grains dispersion and the electrical characterization of the polyurethane–50 vol% lead zirconate titanate composites. Finally, a detailed study of the electromechanical transduction, for the polyurethane–50 vol% lead zirconate titanate unpolarized and polarized composites sustained to the sinusoidal mechanical strain with amplitude of 1.5% and at very low frequencies (f = 2 [Hz] and f = 4 [Hz]) and static electric field (Edc = 10 [V/µm]) or without it (Edc = 0 [V/µm]) has been presented.

A review on recent advances in sandwich structures based on polyurethane foam cores

“…Different mixtures of graphene and graphene oxide as reinforcements for PU have been studied by many researchers in previous years and have shown remarkable improvements in various properties . Other popular choices over the years for reinforcing particles for PU have been metallic powders, ceramics particles, nanoclay, natural clays, modified sand etc . Among these different kinds of reinforcements, TEMs of different forms of natural clays embedded in the PU matrix from a previous study are shown in Figure .…”

Modeling of polyurethane/lead zirconate titanate composites for vibration energy harvesting

“…On the other hand, the experimental setup used in this study has been explained in detail in a previous publication. 18 However, its working principle is shortly resumed in the following. The experimental setup allows making the energy harvesting tests using the PU-50-vol%-PZT composites.…”

Piezoelectric and Electromechanical Characteristics of Porous Poly(Ethylene-co-Vinyl Acetate) Copolymer Films for Smart Sensors and Mechanical Energy Harvesting Applications

“…Modeling the effect of piezoelectric materials is written in the form of the following two fundamental equations. The piezoelectric constitutive equations of direct and converse effects are given below [14]:…”

“…Recently, researchers investigated porous piezoelectric polymers consisting of an ionized cellular polypropylene film made by a chemical elaboration method using nitrogen gas [13]. Excellent piezoelectric coefficients up to 2000 pC/N for specific morphologies and mechanical conditions comparably higher than those of piezoceramics were identified [14,15]. In order to demonstrate the ability of the porous piezoelectric polymers in a harsh environment, Zhong et al [16] fabricated PET/EVA/PET laminated films and ionized them by a corona charging method.…”