Electric Power Generations from PZT Composite and Porous Ceramics for Energy Harvesting Devices.

In this paper an experimental study of different piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting applications, as well as experimental results for various types of piezoelectric materials and piezoelements were presented. Various types of hot-pressed and conventionally sintered PZT piezoceramics, porous PZT piezoceramics, and multilayer PZT/PZT ceramic piezocomposites with diverse ferroelectric “hardness” were fabricated, optimized and tested. Experimental results comprising cyclic loading at different load resistances and mechanical stresses for different types of piezoelements were presented. It was shown that porous ceramics (relative porosity 20%, d33= 410 pC/N, ϵT33/ϵ0= 1100) provide 1.5–2 times higher power efficiency at cyclic loadings than the dense hot-pressed ceramics and can be used as piezogenerators at low loading pressures (up to 5 MPa). The possible applications of developed materials in energy harvesting devices as well as the empirical criteria of piezoelectric materials efficiency were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]