Resources - Energy Harvesting

ENERGY HARVESTING

Barbar Akle, a research scientist with the Researchers from the Center for Intelligent Material Systems, and Andrew Duncan, a student in the Macromolecular Science and Engineering program, along with others from chemical engineering, chemistry, and mechanical engineering are researching electromechanical transduction -- the phenomenon that couples an electrical potential applied across a conducting material with a resulting mechanical response. Ionic polymer transducers (IPT), flexible devices based on this coupling of physical domains, are composed of ion-conducting polymer membranes saturated with an ion-conducting diluent, an interpenetrating electrode layer, and an electrically conductive surface layer. IPTs attract attention in the area of alternative energy sources due to their ability to produce electrical current under repeated mechanical deformation. The magnitude of the current that IPTs generate lends itself to employment in long-term power harvesting and for powering low-energy devices.

Levon Asryan, associate professor of materials science and engineering, is developing theoretical approaches for enhancing energy output from light-emitting devices, which exploit tiny insertions of semiconductor material of one type in a host material of a different type. These insertions, in view of their small size (typically one hundredth of a micron), are called quantum dots and are stimulated to controllably produce light by applying an electrical current. Among perspective applications of quantum dot lasers are information and communication systems (such as Internet, high-speed fiber networks and mobile phone networks) and chemical sensing. This research is funded by a grant from the U.S. Army Research Office.

Romesh C. Batra, the Clifton C Garvin Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, is harvesting energy using piezoelectic materials in which a current is induced when they are deformed or mechanically stressed. The goal is to use these piezoelectic material patches to kill vibrations of a structure by converting the mechanical energy of vibrations into electrical energy, and storing the electrical energy for subsequent use. The energy can be stored in batteries, and/or capacitors.

Dwight Viehland, professor, and colleagues in materials science and engineering work with sensors and actuators. One application for sensors is the harvesting of energy in stray fields. Present emphasis area is in the harvesting of stray electro-magnetic inductances, which could be used to power unmanned underwater autonomous devices for harbor security.