Energy harvester using piezoelectric nanogenerator and electrostatic generator

This study demonstrates an energy harvester that combines a piezoelectric nanogenerator and an electret-based electrostatic generator. The device consists of an in-house fabricated nanocomposite (polydimethylsiloxane/barium titanate/carbon nanotube) as a piezoelectric layer and a monocharged Teflon fluorinated ethylene propylene as an electret electrostatic layer. The mechanical impedance of the structure can be altered easily by changing the nanocomposite monomer/cross-linker ratio and optimizing various mechanical energy sources. The energy harvester's performance was characterized by performing measurements with different frequencies (5-20Hz) under applied dynamic loading. A total volumetric power density of similar to 8.8 mu W cm(-3) and a total stored energy of similar to 50.2 mu J min(-1) were obtained. These findings indicate that this versatile, lightweight, and low-cost energy harvester can be employed as a power supply source for microelectronics in applications, such as wearables.