Improved material performs competitively, is less dense than traditional lead-based energy harvesters, researchers report.
Improved material performs competitively, is less dense than traditional lead-based energy harvesters, researchers report.
There’s a lion’s share of potential energy in the vibrations produced by footsteps on dance floors, exercise machines in the gym, or the engines of cars, planes or construction equipment. Some tech companies have already begun to harvest electricity from waste vibrations to power lights and recharge batteries using a class of piezoelectric ceramic materials, which emit electrical charges when stepped on or manipulated.
Now, a team led by materials scientists at Penn State has expanded these early efforts of energy harvesting by improving the structure and chemistry of a piezoelectric material made of potassium sodium niobate, or KNN. The improved ceramic samples are thermally stable, fatigue resistant, less dense and perform competitively to existing lead-based piezoelectric materials, the researchers said.
Their work, which was published in the journal Small, could help replace toxic lead-based materials currently used in piezoelectric materials, the team said.
Read More: Pennsylvania State University
