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Directory:Piezoelectric

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Index of technologies and resources related to energy generation and harvesting using piezoelectric effects.

1 Principle
2 Energy Designs
3 Coverage
4 Discussion
5 See also

Principle

Impact is converted to electricity.

Piezoelectricity Explained - Short but straightforward explanation of how piezoelectricity works.

Energy Designs

Piezoelectric / Thermal Electric >
Physicists Shrink Heat Engines by Seven Orders of Magnitude - A 0.5 cubic micrometer heat engine being developed by NXP Semiconductors in the Netherlands is essentially a bar of piezoelectric material which expands and contracts when an alternating current is applied, which changes the resistance of the bar, so passing a DC current through the bar at the same time causes the bar to heat up and cool down... (MIT Technology Review; Jan. 22, 2010) (Thanks Jim Dunn)

Energy Harvesting ‘Piezo-tree’ Concept - Researchers at Cornell University are developing what they call a Piezo-tree fitted with flexible plates that oscillate just as a flag or leaf might flap in the wind. They recently found that power increases 100-fold if they attach a plastic film to the end of the plates. (Alt Energy News; Jan. 6, 2010)

Generating electricity from air flow - A group of researchers at the City College of New York are developing a piezoelectric device, which when placed in the wake of a cylinder -- such as on the back of a truck -- the flow of air will cause the devices to vibrate in resonance. On the roof of car, they will shake in a much more unsteady flow known as a turbulent boundary layer. (EScienceNews; Nov. 22, 2009)

Harvesting Energy from Natural Motion - A team at Duke University has come up with at device that is basically a small cantilever with an end magnet that interacts with nearby magnets. The cantilever base is piezoelectric, releasing electrical voltage when strained. By changing the distance of the magnets, the researchers "tune" the interactions of the system with its environment. (Duke University; Oct. 28, 2009)

Produce Electricity While You Drive - Piezoelectricity can be put to use making electricity from the mechanical stress from vehicles passing over roadways. The concept was originally developed by Innowattech, who plans to lay down a sort of test road in Israel. (Alt Energy News; Oct. 7, 2009)

Nanotechnology >
Secrets Of Electricity-Producing Materials - A team of University of Houston scientists has set out to both amplify and provoke the potential in materials known as piezoelectrics, which naturally produce electricity when subjected to strain, such as mechanical movement or jostling. The objective is to create nanodevices that can power electronics, such as cell phones, MP3 players and even biomedical implants. (Energy Daily; July 29, 2009) (Thanks Jim Dunn)

Nanotechnology >
Harnessing Hamster Power with a Nanogenerator - Researchers have demonstrated that a nanogenerator can be driven by irregular, low-energy biomotion, including the tapping of a human finger and a hamster's erratic running and scratching. (Video) (MIT Technology Review; Feb. 11, 2009)

Talk-powered cell phones? Nanoscale piezoelectrics could make it real - A team of Texas researchers, who appear to have discovered that by building a certain type of piezoelectric material to a specific thickness (about 21 nanometers, compared to a typical human hair of 100,000 nanometers), you can boost its energy production by 100 percent. (NetworkWorld; Dec. 2, 2008)

Harvesting power from raindrops - Scientists from Europe’s Atomic Energy Commission, in Grenoble, France, have shown that vibrations from raindrops landing on a certain type of plastic can collect up to 12.5 milliwatts of instantaneous power from one large droplet; 5,000 of these drops would light up a 60-watt bulb. (Plenty; June 19, 2008)

L-Beam Energy Harvester doubles electrical output - Virginia Tech researchers have developed an L-shaped piezoelectric broadband energy harvester that produces greater electrical output (a specific power of 8.2 (watts/g2)/kg) than similar technology of the same size - slightly smaller than a credit card. (Virginia Tech News; Nov. 11, 2008)

New Small-scale Generator Produces Alternating Current By Stretching Zinc Oxide Wires - The new "flexible charge pump" generator is the fourth generation of devices designed to produce electrical current by using the piezoelectric properties of zinc oxide structures to harvest mechanical energy from the environment. It can produce an oscillating output voltage of up to 45 millivolts, converting nearly seven percent of the mechanical energy applied directly to the zinc oxide wires into electricity. (Science daily; Nov. 10, 2008)

Directory:Strike-Heel Generation - New directory dedicated to piezoelectric and heel-strike generation systems for generating power from "good vibrations". (PESWiki)

Power from Fabrics - Researchers at Georgia Tech have made a flexible fiber coated with zinc oxide nanowires that can convert mechanical energy into electricity. The fibers, the researchers say, should be able to harvest any kind of vibration or motion for electric current. (MIT Technology Review; Feb. 14, 2008)

Motion to energy generator - M2E Power is developing a motion to energy generator that could replace batteries and even be used in large scale applications. The company is working on a D-cell battery sized solution to power mobile devices and plans to to demonstrate the technology's usefulness in wind, wave power and hydro applications. (Cleantech.com; Nov. 16, 2007)

Nanowire Extracts Energy from Motion - Researchers at the University of Illinois are working on making a nanogenerator out of barium titanate, which exhibits a greater piezoelectric effect than zinc-oxide, to convert miniscule mechanical energy into electricity for biosensors and tiny portable devices. (MIT Technology Review; Oct. 22, 2007)

"Wind Tree" Electrical Generator - Imagine harnessing the power of hundreds of leaves fluttering in the wind. Richard Dickson is developing a passive wind harvesting technology that uses piezoelectric materials woven into textile-like material to form artificial leaves for a bio-mimicking "tree".

Piezoelectric Generator - Richard Dickson proposes using the piezoelectric effect for generating electricity, where pressure turns into electricity, from environments such as wave action or roadway impact. The question is one of cost and feasibility, not whether or not it would work.

Advanced Cerametrics - Extreme Life Span Micro Power Supplies convert up to 70% of energy from ambient vibration to electrical power using piezoelectric composite fibers. They eliminate battery replacement issues for security sensors, monitoring equipment, machine health condition systems, building controls and process controls.

Backpack straps harvest energy to power electronics - All that rubbing of your backpack straps on your shoulders may be put to good use, now that researchers have designed a novel type of energy harvesting backpack with straps made of a piezoelectric material that can convert the mechanical strain on the straps into electrical energy. (PhysOrg; Sept. 13, 2007)

Wind-Generated Electricity Using Flexible Piezoelectrics (pdf) - Flexible piezoelectric bimorph flaps in the wind like a flag. Bending stresses caused by flapping generate charges and hence voltages. Estimated efficiency 0.01 - 0.1%

A Novel Method of Harvesting Wind Energy through Piezoelectric Vibration for Low-Power Autonomous Sensors - As a piezoelectric fan is powered by an AC power source, wind flow is generated by the flapping of the piezoelectric fan. Using the reverse effect of the piezoelectric fan for electrical power generation, when wind flows past the flexible piezoelectric bimorph flaps, bending stresses caused by flapping generate charges and hence electrical voltages at the output of the piezoelectric flaps.

Harvesting Rain Power Via Piezoelectric Landing Pads - Scientists from CEA/Leti-Minatec in France have developed a system that recovers the vibration energy from raindrops falling on a piezoelectric structure. The system works with raindrops ranging in diameter from 1 to 5 mm. Simulations show that it's possible to recover up to 12 milliwatts from one of the larger "downpour" drops.

Maximize Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Using Synchronous Charge Extraction Technique For Powering Autonomous Wireless Transmitter - In the Energy Harvesting research, the amount of power available is so minimal in terms of mW or even uW. The idea is to have a very high power density energy harvester. For piezoelectric generator, under very low vibration excitation, the amount of energy available for extraction is very little. The concept of synchronous charge extraction from the piezoelectric generator has been experimentally proven to be able to extract much higher amount of energy than the standard electronic circuit.