Ferroelectric Dipole Electrets Prepared from Soft and Hard PZT Ceramics in Electrostatic Vibration Energy Harvesters

Abstract

Aiming at longer stability of surface potential, we propose a ferroelectric dipole electret (FDE) prepared from hard ferroelectric material. We compared output power of electrostatic vibration energy harvester and surface potential stability between FDEs prepared from soft and hard PZT ceramics, as well as a CYTOP polymer electret. The hard FDE showed a seven-fold increase in output power over the soft FDE and nine-fold increase over the CYTOP polymer electret. The hard FDE also showed longer stability of surface potential than that of the soft FDE, whereas the stability of the hard FDE was not yet comparable to that of CYTOP polymer electret. A FDE prepared from harder PZT ceramic (with higher coercive electric field and Curie temperature) may provide more stability in surface potential.