https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2015-02600-y
Regular Article
Porous ferroelectrics for energy harvesting applications
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Claverton Down Road, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
2 Modern Training Center, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, PR China
a e-mail: jir24@bath.ac.uk
Received: 19 August 2015
Revised: 9 September 2015
Published online: 20 November 2015
This paper provides an overview of energy harvesting using ferroelectric materials, with a particular focus on the energy harvesting capabilities of porous ferroelectric ceramics for both piezo- and pyroelectric harvesting. The benefits of introducing porosity into ferro- electrics such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) has been known for over 30 years, but the potential advantages for energy harvesting from both ambient vibrations and temperature fluctuations have not been studied in depth. The article briefly discusses piezoelectric and pyro- electric energy harvesting, before evaluating the potential benefits of porous materials for increasing energy harvesting figures of merits and electromechanical/electrothermal coupling factors. Established processing routes are evaluated in terms of the final porous structure and the resulting effects on the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2015
