Nanotechnology-enhanced High-efficient Miniaturized Energy Harvesting Systems

The Project Objective is to achieve a piezoelectric energy harvesting device based on nanotechnology-enhanced materials. The power density is expected to achieve ~1-10 mW per cubic mm and are compatible with Army applications in the field to power autonomous miniaturized sensors. The novelty involves synthesizing piezoelectric nanowires, using commercially upscalable techniques, and incorporating the nanowires into nanowire/polymer composites that are suitable for improving the power density beyond previously-achieved results from other groups. The description of the effort can be broken down into four tasks as follows: 1) fabrication of piezoelectric nanowires that possess either high piezoelectric coefficients and/or ease of device integration capabilities, 2) mixing nanowire and polymer matrices to enhance the piezoelectric response in a device structure, 3) prototyping multiple device architectures amenable to high power density generation, and 4) optimizing of device structure. The effort will also encompass the development of novel device architectures that are capable of improving the collection efficiency across multiple vibration ranges (Hz to kHz) as well as vibration direction.