Thickness effects of electret and polymer for energy harvesting: Case of CYTOP- CTLM and polyurethane
Résumé
The authors aimed to investigate the electrostrictive polymers for energy harvesting. These particular materials have demonstrated a great ability to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa. This energy conversion has been exploited in an extensive range of applications, including sensors and actuators. On the other hand, the reason for using electrets in the present work was to produce the static electric field required to capture energy through electrostrictive polymers and hence to avoid the problem of high voltage power. For a good μ-generators performance the electromechanical parameters have to be optimized. Experimental results show the possibility of improving harvesting energy without power supply, by using hybridization of electrets and electrostrictive materials, which is very promising for future applications. Moreover, in order to obtain a maximum of harvested power one should choose a minimum of the thickness of the electrets and a maximum of thickness of polymer. The measured results are analyzed and compared with the theoretical model and they are consistent. These results shed light on the hybridization of electrostrictive polymer with electrets, and are useful for improving the harvesting energy. © 2015, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.