Print Email Facebook Twitter Analysis and experimental validation of the figure of merit for piezoelectric energy harvesters Title Analysis and experimental validation of the figure of merit for piezoelectric energy harvesters Author Deutz, D.B. (TU Delft Novel Aerospace Materials; University of Southern Denmark) Pascoe, J.A. (TU Delft Structural Integrity & Composites; Imperial College London) Schelen, J.B.J. (TU Delft EMSD EEMCS Project engineers) van der Zwaag, S. (TU Delft Novel Aerospace Materials) de Leeuw, D.M. (TU Delft Novel Aerospace Materials) Groen, W.A. (TU Delft Novel Aerospace Materials; TNO) Date 2018-05-01 Abstract Piezoelectric energy harvesters are at the front of scientific research as enablers of renewable, sustainable energy for autonomous wireless sensor networks. Crucial for this disruptive technology is the achievable output power. Here we show, analytically, that the maximum output energy per unit volume, under a single sinusoidal excitation, is equal to 1/(4 - 2k2) × 1/2dgX2, where k2 is the electromechanical coupling coefficient, d and g are the piezoelectric charge and voltage coefficient, respectively, and X is the applied stress. The expression derived is validated by the experimentally measured output energy for a variety of piezoelectric materials over an unprecedented range of more than five orders of magnitude. As the prefactor 1/(4 - 2k2) varies only between 1/2 and 1/4 the figure of merit for piezoelectric materials for energy harvesters is not k2, as commonly accepted for vibrational harvesters, but dg. The figure of merit does not depend on the compliance, or Young's modulus. Hence we argue that commonly used brittle inorganic piezoelectric ceramics can be replaced by soft, mechanically flexible polymers and composite films, comprising inorganic piezoelectric materials embedded in a polymer matrix. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3ebce2f3-e2d8-433c-bbcd-684e0835c14b DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/c8mh00097b Embargo date 2018-09-01 ISSN 2051-6347 Source Materials Horizons, 5 (3), 444-453 Bibliographical note Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public. Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2018 D.B. Deutz, J.A. Pascoe, J.B.J. Schelen, S. van der Zwaag, D.M. de Leeuw, W.A. Groen Files PDF 109_Figure_of_merit_d_g.pdf 3.08 MB PDF 109_Suppl_Info.pdf 2.6 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:3ebce2f3-e2d8-433c-bbcd-684e0835c14b/datastream/OBJ1/view