Enhancement of electrostrictive polymer power harvesting using new technique SSHI-Max
Résumé
Applications Energy harvesting have increased for powering wireless sensors and low power devices during the past few decades. Smart materials used as generators have received considerable attention lately and several prototypes were built to demonstrate the process. At present, the investigation of using electrostrictive polymers for energy harvesting (a conversion of mechanical to electrical energy) is beginning to show their potential. The focus of this paper is to show how the electrostrictive polymers can be used as generator, and to propose a solution for artificially increasing the coupling factor of electrostrictive materials. Based on a new technique SSHI-Max, with a transverse strain of 0.5 % and a bias field of 10 V/µm, such a process rendered it possible to increase the converted power by 500 % with a low-frequency mechanical excitation. This study contributes to provide a framework for developing an innovative energy harvesting technology that collects vibrations from the environment and converts them into electricity to power a variety of sensors. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.