Ultrahigh energy harvesting properties in textured lead-free piezoelectric composites

Yuan Sun, Yunfei Chang, Jie Wu, Yingchun Liu, Li Jin, Shantao Zhang, Bin Yang, Wenwu Cao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

56 Scopus citations

Abstract

Piezoelectric energy harvesters have gained significant attention in recent years due to the strong demand of sustainable power sources for wireless sensor networks and portable/wearable electronics. However, the relatively low figure of merit (d × g) induced by thermodynamic constraints seriously hinders the enhancement of power generation capability in lead-free piezoelectrics. In this work, crystallographic texture and composite design strategies were integrated to develop novel 0-3 type (Ba, Ca)(Ti, Sn)O 3 /BaTiO 3 (BCTS/BT) composites with highly [001] c -oriented and "core-shell" structured grains to resolve this challenge. Increasing texture degree F 001 above 86% enabled rapid enhancements of piezoelectric charge/strain coefficients d 33 and . Meanwhile, the inclusion of low-ϵ r BT microcrystals inside the oriented BCTS grains effectively suppressed the dielectric permittivity ϵ r of the composites, thus remarkably improving the piezoelectric voltage coefficient g 33 . Especially, the 98%-textured 0-3 composites demonstrated as high as ∼405% improvement in d 33 × g 33 value (17.0 × 10 -12 m 2 N -1 ), attributed to the strong piezoelectric anisotropy, the formation of much finer domains and the elastoelectric composite effect. The cantilever energy harvesters based on such composites possessed ∼560% enhancement in power density (4.5 μW mm -3 ) at 1 g acceleration relative to the non-textured counterpart, which significantly outperformed many previously reported lead-free piezoelectrics. This work provides a new important paradigm for developing high-performance viable green energy harvesters, which can largely expand the application fields of lead-free piezoelectrics.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3603-3611
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Materials Chemistry A
Volume7
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Chemistry
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • General Materials Science

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