Power Harvesting via Smart Materials

The invention of electricity and the lightbulb has played a ground-breaking role in the development of modern technology and society. Piezoelectric materials, one of the so-called “smart materials,” produce an electric charge upon the application of stress; this fascinating characteristic allows them to be exploited to generate electric energy via the use of ambient mechanical vibrations in machinery and biological systems. Sensors are being increasingly used in a range of applications: structural health monitoring (SHM), security networks, medicine, and aeronautics to civil engineering, military, and animal tracking. The recent development of lower-power electronic devices, such as wireless sensor nodes, active RFIDs, and nano-transducers, has led to an increase in the demand for piezoelectric energy-harvesting applications to power these sensors. Energy harvesting is of interest to all of us because it reduces the task of replacing conventional batteries in self-powered devices located in remote and difficult-to-access locations.

This monograph contains the most comprehensive and up-to-date review of ambient electric energy harvesting via piezoelectric, ferroelectric, and pyroelectric materials. It brings to both novice and advanced readers all of the topics required to understand piezoelectric energy-harvesting techniques. The text presents the complete lifecycle of a material from the basics of smart materials, theory of operation of harvesters, and structure of piezoelectric materials to the processing and technological applications in a systematic manner with emphasis on the most recent advances. It also contains instructive case studies and examples of experimental validation of novel energy-harvesting techniques. This monograph should prove to be of immeasurable benefit for graduate students, engineers, and scientists as a comprehensive guide to the current state-of-the-art science and technology of the analysis and development of piezoelectric energy harvesting.