Piezoelectric Harvesting Characteristics of BaTiO3 Microstructures for Optimal Nanogenerators

The study investigates piezoelectric harvesting efficiency of BTO microstructures with different structural configurations for electromechanical nanogenerators using FEM simulation. The effects of different BTO structures in same cross-section area are simulated, including the lengths, the heights, array numbers, shapes and harmonic response. The results show that a single-bulk structure of piezoelectric BTO produces less harvesting energy than an array structure in same cross-section area. The harvesting voltages increase with array number increasing. However, the energy harvesting obviously decreases when the array number is over 33. There has lager energy harvesting with a small ratio (Rh) that defined a diameter of BTO cylinder devided by a height of BTO cylinder. In addition, the piezoelectric harvesting based on BTO arrays with a zigzag layer has higher harvesting efficiency.