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A journal linking all aspects of the chemical, physical and biotechnological sciences relating to energy conversion and storage, alternative fuel technologies and environmental science.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, USA
E-mail: xudong@engr.wisc.edu
; Fax: +1 608-2628353
; Tel: +1 608-8902667
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011,4, 4508-4512
DOI:
10.1039/C1EE02241E
Received
29 Jul 2011,
Accepted
19 Aug 2011
First published online
15 Sep 2011
In this paper, we report a technique that uses piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) microbelts to convert the energy from low-speed air flow to electricity via their resonant oscillation. The micrometre thick PVDF thin films were fabricated by a top-down reactive ion etching process, where the thickness was controlled by etching time and the piezoelectric phase was well preserved. The thickness, air flow speed and electrical output relationship was predicted theoretically and characterized experimentally. The PVDF microbelts were able to generate sufficient electrical energy from low speed air flow for the sustained operation of small electronic devices. Their capability for harvesting energy from simulated respiration was also demonstrated.
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Energy & Environmental Science
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