Electrostrictive polymers for mechanical energy harvesting

Yiming Liu; Kailiang Ren; Heath F. Hofmann; Qiming Zhang

doi:10.1117/12.547133

27 July 2004 Electrostrictive polymers for mechanical energy harvesting

Yiming Liu, Kailiang Ren, Heath F. Hofmann, Qiming Zhang

Proceedings Volume 5385, Smart Structures and Materials 2004: Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD); (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.547133
Event: Smart Structures and Materials, 2004, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

Recent advances in electroactive polymers including high field induced strain, high elastic energy density (~1 J/cm3), and relatively high energy conversion efficiency, approaching those of natural muscles, create new opportunities for many applications. Harvesting electric energy from mechanical sources such as a soldier during walking is one such example. Several electroactive polymers developed recently are briefly reviewed. The paper further presents analysis on the key steps in achieving energy harvesting effectively. It is shown that one may make use of smart electronics to modify the electric boundary conditions in the electroactive polymers during the energy harvesting cycle to realize higher energy conversion efficiency in the systems compared with the efficiency of the material itself. Due to the fact that the energy density of the electromagnetic based energy harvesting devices scales with the square root of the device volume, the paper shows that the electroactive polymers based energy harvesting devices exhibit higher energy density and therefore are more suitable for this application.

Citation Download Citation

Yiming Liu, Kailiang Ren, Heath F. Hofmann, and Qiming Zhang "Electrostrictive polymers for mechanical energy harvesting", Proc. SPIE 5385, Smart Structures and Materials 2004: Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD), (27 July 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.547133

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