Nanotechnology-enhanced High-efficient Miniaturized Energy Harvesting Systems

Performance of conventional primary and secondary batteries improve at a meager rate every year. Sensors and sensor networks which are advancing through relentless miniaturization effects need uninterrupted power sources in many scenarios. We propose to use a piezoelectric based energy scavenging device to harvest energy from environmental vibrations. Although a handful of structures by a few groups have demonstrated that ZnO nanowires have great promise for energy harvesting devices, the few schemes that have demonstrated the energy harvesting in these nanowires have been mainly laboratory experiments performed with an atomic force microscope top or a fiber coated with the ZnO nanowires on which a pulling force is exerted. The proposed work is very necessary to develop more robust schemes that may easily translate to non-laboratory based packages with miniaturized sensors. Phase I will evaluate piezoelectric properties of nanowires of ZnO, GaN, lithium niobate, and PZT design for embedding the nanowire into a softer host matrix to be able to withstand high strains and design a mechanical to energy coupling mechanism with plans to produce a prototype for Phase II.