A highly dense structure boosts energy harvesting and cycling reliabilities of a high-performance lead-free energy harvester†
Abstract
Currently, effective piezoelectric energy harvesters are based on Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) ceramics. However, the growing environmental concerns have been pushing the development of viable green alternatives for lead-based piezoelectric ceramics. In this study, a high quality Mn-modified (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 (Mn-KNN) lead-free piezoelectric ceramic has been prepared, which is promising for use in lead-free piezoelectric energy harvesters. Herein, we showed that the 1.0 mol% Mn-KNN ceramics not only possessed high Curie temperature, but also exhibited excellent energy harvesting performance due to the highly dense fine-grained structure and various domain configurations. In the mode of a cantilever-type energy harvester, a high output power of 85 μW and peak-to-peak voltage of 16 V were obtained at the acceleration of 40 m s−2. Furthermore, the 1.0 mol% Mn-KNN energy harvester exhibits excellent fatigue resistance up to 106 cycles. These findings indicate potential applications of the Mn-KNN piezoelectric energy harvester for self-powered sources of wireless sensor network systems.