THE FEASIBILITY OF PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTING FOR CIVIL APPLICATIONS

Piezo means pressure in Greek. Piezoelectricity is the generation of an electric field when pressure is applied to a certain material. The piezoelectric effect was first discovered by the Curie brothers in 1880. But this technology wasn't implemented to a product until 1921. Like many inventions there is time between the discovery and practical use. This is mainly because of the advantages of already optimized competing technology. In addition, new technology has to show great benefits before it will be accepted. In 1924 piezo was used for the first time in radio transmitters and at the end of 1930 all transmitters were equipped with piezoelectric crystals. The major introduction of piezoelectric material was by the discovery that the mixed oxide compound barium titanate (BaTiO3) can be made piezoelectric. With an electric poling process the material gains its piezoelectric properties which are much stronger than the natural quartz crystal. In 1947 the first BaTiO3 piezoelectric based phonograph pickups appeared on the commercial market. The strong piezoelectric effect of lead zirconate titanate (PzT) was discovered in 1954 and is until today a leading material for piezoelectric applications. The piezoelectric effect in polymers was first discovered in 1969 on poly vinylidene fluoride (PVN F) [1].