Piezoelectric Archives – The Green Optimistic

New Technology Generates Electricity By Making Use Of Heavy Road Traffic

Mila Luleva — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 13:34:14 +0000

Cars on the road are known to be the worst enemy to “green” lovers. Emissions from combustion engines continue to increasingly contribute to atmospheric pollution, posing severe risks to human health, regardless of the numerous reports and warnings issued by environmentalists and governmental officials. With the support of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), […]

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Energy Floors Transform Kinetic Energy from Dancing into Electricity

Mike Sandru — Sat, 04 May 2013 17:20:46 +0000

Floors which harvest kinetic energy to produce electricity have already been used in sports arenas with implementation in running tracks and fields. This development is now coming to nightclubs with Energy Floors, the name behind the design, producing an LED-lit floor that transforms dance moves into electricity. Available in many sizes, the Energy Floors feature modular […]

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New Ultra-Thin Material Uses Water Vapor to Harvest Energy

Mila Luleva — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:13:25 +0000

New material, created by MIT engineers, absorbs tiny amounts of water vapor. This process changes the shape of the material and initiates a continuous motion, harvesting enough energy to power nanoelectronic devices. According to says Mingming Ma, a postdoc at MIT’s David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and lead author of the publication […]

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Smaller is Better – Understanding Pyroelectric Nanomaterials

Benji Jerew — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:29:25 +0000

Does size matter? Most people will say yes, and affirm that bigger is better. On the other hand, sometimes smaller can be better, as we recently discussed using superconductors to reduce the size and increase the power of wind generators. Piezo- and pyroelectrical materials, such as PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 [PZT], have properties that are well-known and demonstrated […]

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Self-Charging Battery Transforms Vibrations Directly Into Chemical Energy

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:24:26 +0000

A research team and the Georgia Institute of Technology has invented a lithium ion battery that charges itself by using the environment vibrations. Unlike other similar devices, this one is highly efficient, because it converts mechanical energy to chemical energy directly, without using electricity as a middleman. A piezoelectric membrane is at the Lithium Cobalt […]

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Nanocomposite Materials Make Up New Cheap Piezoelectric Harvester

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:37:03 +0000

A new large-area piezoelectric nanogenerator technology has been developed by a team of scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The new technology uses piezoelectric ceramic nanoparticles and overcome limitations of previous piezoelectric materials. Led by Prof. Keon Jae Lee, the team set itself the goal to build a simple and low-cost […]

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Chinese Scientists Find Alternative to Lead-Containing Mainstream Piezoelectric Material

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:57:43 +0000

You probably learned in high school what the piezoelectric effect is: a phenomenon where an electromotive force is generated by applying mechanical stress to a material. So far, piezoelectric devices used a material called lead zirconate titanate (PZT). However, PZT is expensive and contains lead, which is bad for the environment. Progress does happen, though, […]

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New Discovery Makes Piezoelectric Materials 25% More Efficient

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:31:40 +0000

A new project at National Physical Laboratory in the UK aims to develop a much more efficient piezoelectric energy harvester. They found a serious glitch in current piezo devices that keeps them from giving their best at converting mechanical stress to electricity. Despite the fact that the powers outputted by piezoelectric devices are small (per […]

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Cornell Students Harnessing Wind Vibrations to Produce Free Electricity

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:41:11 +0000

A group of undergraduate students at Cornell University has conceived a device that can harness wind-induced vibrations into electricity through the piezoelectric effect. The Vibro-Wind Research Group is led by Frank Moon, Joseph Ford Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

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Innowattech Applying Piezoelectric Technology To Railroad Tracks For Electricity Generation

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:17:49 +0000

After modifying Israeli highways to produce energy from piezoelectric pads installed beneath the asphalt, Innowattech, an Israel-based company, now applied their technology on railroads.

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A Step Ahead For Zinc Oxide Piezoelectrics: Over 20 Times Power Improvement

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:01:09 +0000

Piezoelectrics are a class of materials that, if applied a mechanical force, exert an electric current on the sides. You may already have knowledge about this, but researchers are studying how to take piezoelectric materials to the next step.

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Louisiana Professor Uses Piezoelectric Material and Carbon Nanotubes to Recover Lost Heat

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:53:49 +0000

A Louisiana Tech University professor, dr. Long Que, has designed and prototyped a composite material that converts heat into electricity by using simple physical mechanisms found in piezoelectric materials and carbon nanotubes.

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Sound Waves – A Different Kind of Power Source That Can Charge Your Cellphone

Mike Sandru — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:07:23 +0000

Researchers from Korea are working on a new technology that can power your cellphone with sound. They have turned zinc oxide (the main ingredient of calamine lotion) into a tiny material that converts sound waves into energy through piezoelectricity.

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PZT Nanofibers Piezoelectric Generator Producing 1.6V Unveiled by SIT Scientist

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:25:39 +0000

Dr. Yong Shi, from Stevens Institute of Technology has released a paper called "1.6 V Nanogenerator for Mechanical Energy Harvesting Using PZT Nanofibers." He uses piezoelectric nanowire- and nanofiber-based generators that can convert mechanical energy into electricity.

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Piezo Shower: Newly Invented Piezoelectric Nanowires Used to Heat Water Through Friction

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:47:09 +0000

The water that you unleash when you take a shower (with the "hot" knob closed) has two properties: pressure and temperature. You can change pressure, but to raise its temperature you usually need extra energy. Regularly, you don't shower with the water knob turned to the maximum, so a certain extra pressure exists in the tubing, creating friction.

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Harvesting Energy From Small Vibrations for Use in Pacemakers and Implants

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:15:50 +0000

University of Michigan researchers, at their Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems, have just created highly efficient some energy-harvesting devices that use the energy from surrounding arbitrary, non-periodic vibrations.

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Zinc Oxide Crystal Acting as Piezoelectric Material To Get Hydrogen From Water

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:18:51 +0000

A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have just discovered that crystals of zinc oxide, if submerged, absorb its vibrations and act like a piezoelectric material, developing areas of strong negative and positive charges.

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New Piezoelectric Flexible Nanoribbons Prove 80% Efficient Conversion

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:32:00 +0000

Pacemaker owners all over the world and other people in need of a reliable, small current source will surely be glad when they'll hear that Princeton University scientists have developed an ultra-efficient (80%) piezoelectric system, able to transform mechanical work into electricity.

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Proof-of-Concept Piezoelectric Generators Used to Recover Energy from Wind

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:48:03 +0000

City College of New York researchers, led by professor Yiannis Andreopoulos, are studying how to incorporate piezoelectric electricity generators into cars and planes, so they can convert the kinetic energy of motion into electricity.

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400 kW Piezoelectric Energy Recovery System Under Israel's Highways

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:17:19 +0000

When I was like 12, I did an interesting experiment: I connected a piezoelectric cigarette lighter to a halogen lamp based voltmeter measuring up to 3000V. The short spark easily raised the voltage above that figure. Of course, the current is very small, but the voltage is high - to the degree of about several tens of thousands volts.

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New Nano-Device Could Power Your MP3 Player from Surrounding Sound

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:29:21 +0000

Tahir Cagin, from the Texas A&M University, recently discovered that a specific type of piezoelectric material could convert sound waves into electric current 100 percent more efficient than current devices, when it is manufactured at a very small size - 21 nanometers.

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Flexible Charge Pump: Harvesting Mechanical Energy Through Zinc Oxide Wires

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:13:19 +0000

Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology developed a new type of small-scale electric power generator, based on stretching and releasing zinc oxide wires encapsulated in a flexible plastic with two ends bonded.

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London's Eco Nightclub to Open Today

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:50:32 +0000

You eat. You dance. You generate power. All the shaking-for-nothing floors of London's nightclubs are one step behind the city's most eco-friendly nightclub. San Francisco has got one, and so does Rotterdam. Basically, the whole idea behind this concept is to generate electricity from the shaking dance floor, electricity which would largely power the dancers' music and lights. It's like "pedal for electricity", but more fun.

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Your Fingertips Could Power Your Laptop!

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:28:38 +0000

Core77.com’s “Greener Gadgets Competition” shows up a system invented by Alexander Parker, that could power your laptop, cellphone, or other device that has buttons as an input, to an extent that could replace your battery (for example, if you write a lot, you could write more). Assume that if for each character in a text […]

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Nano Fibers Will Power Your iPod

Ovidiu Sandru — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:18:09 +0000

Have your ever seen those self-powered mechanical watches, those who charge themselves from your hand’s movement? They have one half of a heavier metal disc spinning around an axis. That movement rotates some wheels, who finally rotate the watch spring. However, that is not our article’s subject. Our article talks about some newer discovery: some […]

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