Innovative nano-materials and architectures for integrated piezoelectric energy harvesting applications - HarvEnPiez

Project summary

In an era of shrinking conventional energy resources, the development of low-power-consumption portable devices, sensors and body-implantable devices, the concept of generating power by harvesting energy from the ambient environment and biomechanical movements is attracting huge interest. The most efficient way to harvest electrical energy from mechanical movements is to utilize the piezoelectricity of ferroelectrics. In the HarvEnPiez project, the influence of shape and size on the piezoelectricity of ferroelectric particles will be predicted by ab-initio calculations. Different ferroelectric particles with defined sizes and shapes of plates, cubes and/or wires will be synthesized and systematically self-assembled on a substrate for the energy-harvesting devices. A high-performance device will be developed based on the optimized composition, shape, size and orientation of the ferroelectric particles and/or the enhancement of the piezoelectricity through lattice-strain engineering.