Cyclic Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting in PMN-PT Single Crystals

Ferroelectric materials are used in a number of applications such as sensors, transducers, actuators, health monitoring and micro-electromechanical systems. The ability of these materials to combine electrical and mechanical responses has led to the establishment of many energy harvesting and conversion systems. Energy harvesting from mechanical vibrations using ferroelectric (subclass of piezoelectric) materials has been extensively studied over the last several decades. However, most of these possess low energy conversion density. Many researchers are working in the direction of improving energy conversion density in these materials. In this study, an attempt has been made to shed some light on the mechanical energy harvesting potential of ferroelectric Pb(Mn1/3Nb2/3)O3-32PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single crystal through the use of Olsen-like (Ericson) cycle. A maximum energy conversion density of 160 kJ/m3 is obtained for operation parameters of 0–1.5 MV/m and 2–28 MPa stress interval at 80°C. The reported energy density is higher than that of most of other energy harvesting techniques using PMN-PT. The results motivate possible use of this technique for mechanical energy harvesting in ferroelectric materials.