Piezoelectric ceramic materials on transducer technology for energy harvesting: A review

Abstract

Recently, energy harvesting through the means of piezoelectric transducer technology has increasingly attracted the attention of engineers and scientists in producing/generating electricity for human consumption. However, understanding of piezoelectric materials for application in piezoelectric transducer devices in energy harvesting remains important in today’s energy systems engineering. Thus, the present review study is centered on piezoelectric materials for a better understanding of the properties of different piezoelectric materials (ceramic) when placed under mechanical stress or vibration and electrical field during energy harvesting using transducer devices. With the available literature, lead zirconate titanate materials showed to be the most common piezoelectric material with a high energy-generating performance but possessed more mechanical failure and also compromised in a harsh environment compared to lead-free piezoelectric materials. As such, the authors conclude that lead-free piezoelectric materials, such as zinc oxide and barium titanate, remain the best conducive piezoelectric material over lead zirconate titanate, which basically affects the human environment due to its toxicity. Thus, to widen the use of lead-free piezoelectric materials in energy harvesting, owing to their improved properties and environment-friendly nature, the authors recommend further enhancement of the lead-free piezoelectric material properties via nanodielectric filler incorporations using the spark plasma sintering technique.

A Review of Approaches for Mitigating Effects from Variable Operational Environments on Piezoelectric Transducers for Long-Term Structural Health Monitoring

“…Piezoelectric devices, besides the transducer function for SHM, can also operate as an energy harvester [ 12 , 104 , 105 ]. For providing electric power to SHM systems or wire-less transducer nodes, piezoelectric energy harvesters compete with other energy sources.…”

“…For the long-term, PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) may have advantages over PZT in spite of a lower harvesting performance [ 107 ]. A review of piezoceramic materials for energy harvesting [ 105 ] notes lead-free piezoelectric materials as a perspective choice, with the recent improvement of piezoelectric properties, e.g., BaTiO 3 , for better performance during service compared with PZT.…”

Theoretical and experiment optimization research of a frequency up-converted piezoelectric energy harvester based on impact and magnetic force

“…Vibration energy has garnered significant attention in contemporary research on environmental energy harvesting due to its ubiquitous presence, including vibrations from industrial equipment, vehicles, bridges, and human activities [6]. Numerous researchers have investigated vibration energy harvesting through various transduction mechanisms, including electromagnetic induction, electrostatic induction, the piezoelectric effect, and the triboelectric effect.…”

Effect of Zn–Fe2O3 nanomaterials on the phase separated morphologies of polyvinylidene fluoride piezoelectric nanogenerators

“…This happens when a crystalline material like ceramics or polymers with non-central symmetry is mechanically deformed by external forces. [5][6][7] Lead-free piezoelectric nanomaterials of barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) and zinc oxide (ZnO), along with PVDF-based polymeric products, have been extensively investigated in recent years and demonstrated numerous advantages, such as good piezoelectricity, simplicity in structure, ease of synthesis, low production cost, and multifunctional applications. 8 Tuning the band gap of ZnO nanomaterials and their morphologies was extensively studied to test its signicance in piezoelectric voltage generation by many research groups, including ours.…”