Abstract
This study proposes trenching piezoelectric (PZT) material in a thicker PZT pyroelectric cell to improve the temperature variation rate to enhance the efficiency of thermal energy-harvesting conversion by pyroelectricity. A thicker pyroelectric cell is beneficial in generating electricity pyroelectrically, but it hinders rapid temperature variations. Therefore, the PZT sheet was fabricated to produce deeper trenches to cause lateral temperature gradients induced by the trenched electrode, enhancing the temperature variation rate under homogeneous heat irradiation. When the trenched electrode type with an electrode width of 200 μm and a cutting depth of 150 μm was used to fabricate a PZT pyroelectric cell with a 200 μm thick PZT sheet, the temperature variation rate was improved by about 55%. Therefore, the trenched electrode design did indeed enhance the temperature variation rate and the efficiency of pyroelectric energy converters.
Highlights
The task of harvesting energy from renewable sources such as thermal energy, light energy, wind power, vibration, or mechanical energy has stimulated important research efforts over the past years.Energy conversion devices, from millimeter scale down to microscale, have been presented with average powers in the 10 μW to 10 mW range
Thermoelectric modules are the main means of harvesting energy from temperature gradients, and can generate electric output energies ranging from μW to kW
When a PZT pyroelectric cell is subjected to temperature variation, its internal polarization produces an electrical field which induces voltage and current responses between the top and bottom electrodes
Summary
The task of harvesting energy from renewable sources such as thermal energy, light energy, wind power, vibration, or mechanical energy has stimulated important research efforts over the past years. One study focused on pyroelectric cells based on fabricated screen-printed PZT and commercial PVDF films proposed as thermal energy harvesting sources in order to supply low-power autonomous sensors [6]. The conversion ratio of thermoelectric modules is highly limited by the material of fabrication’s properties This current study was concerned with the design, assembly, and operation of a pyroelectric energy converter for harvesting waste heat for direct conversion into electricity by performing the Olsen cycle on co-polymer 60/40. The generated current of pyroelectric cells is based on the pyroelectric effect, converting temperature variation to a corresponding electrical output. The electrode layouts and trenches in the PZT sheets were designed and implemented to enhance the temperature variation rate and the efficiency of pyroelectric harvesting converters. Improvement in temperature variation rates of the PZT pyroelectric cells was evaluated
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