EcoPad – A concept tablet PC that recharges its own battery using piezoelectronics recently won the Fujitsu Design Award 2011. Under the LCD panel is a nano piezoelectronic film, which generates energy (seen in green), and below the film is an additional battery.
Credit: Fujitsu
EDINBURGH: Bringing us one step closer to a future where recharging your tablet could be as easy as typing a tweet, researchers have measured the ability of certain materials to convert pressure into electrical energy.
For the first time, Australian scientists have been able to precisely measure the level of electrical voltage and current - and therefore, power - that can be generated by thin films of this piezoelectric material, paving the way for new applications.
"The power of piezoelectrics could be integrated into running shoes to charge mobile phones, enable laptops to be powered through typing or even used to convert blood pressure into a power source for pacemakers - essentially creating an everlasting battery," said Madhu Bhaskaran, lead co-author of the study published in Advanced Functional Materials.
Pressure into energy
Piezoelectric materials are able to convert pressure that is applied to them (mechanical energy) into charge (electrical energy) - so, in a sense, you are literally squeezing out electrical energy.
This principle's most common example can be found in a lighter, where the flick of the switch creates a spark from the piezoelectric material, which ignites the gas.
These materials have been studied extensively for almost a century since their discovery by the Curie brothers in 1880, but until now little was known about the energy generation properties at the microscropic level.
When studying the material at the nano-scale level, a team of researchers from RMIT University in Melbourne made a breakthrough that could pave the way for wide scale integration of the material into existing technology.
Self-powered technology
The team identified the ability of thin films of piezoelectric material to generate current and voltage at the nanoscale - specifically determining the amount of voltage generated by a particular force.
This new degree of accuracy allows the technology to be further developed, opening up new and exciting applications.
They did this using a piece of advanced equipment called a nanoindenter - which acts in a similar way to pricking a surface with a pin, but at the nano-scale. The applied force by the tiny pin (around 20-100nm) generated the voltage and current, which was measured.
Alternative energy solutions
"Our study focused on thin film coatings because we believe they hold the only practical possibility of integrating piezoelectrics into existing electronic technology," said Bhaskaran.
"With the drive for alternative energy solutions, we need to find more efficient ways to power microchips, which are the building blocks of everyday technology like the smarter phone or faster computer.
"The next key challenge will be amplifying the electrical energy generated by the piezoelectric materials to enable them to be integrated into low-cost, compact structures."
Heh?
"The applied force by the tiny pin (around 20-100nm) generated the voltage and current and was measured."
Sloppy editing (grammar) and sloppy science.
Is the "force" 20-100 Newton-Meters (Nm)? (not a unit of force at all)
Or is the "force" 20-100 nano meters (nm)? (not a unit of force at all)
Or do you mean a deflection of 20-100 nano-meters?
For goodness sake, if "science" "journalists" can't get this stuff right, what right have we to object to politicians (lawyers, bean counters, and blinkered greenies) totally stuffing up every policy that has to do with science and technology?
IMOH it's even worse than that. This kind of imprecision gives the fanatical climate change skeptics traction, because the general public remains uneducated in the face of confusing, confused, and ignorant science reporting. They don't feel obliged to stick to the truth. We have nothing but the truth on our side, and must stick fastidiously and precisely to the truth. That includes getting the technicalities right - every time.
I expect better from Cosmos, much better.
Re: Heh?
Its not so complicated/confusing. "Around 20-100nm" is the size of the pin, not the force. They're just trying to clarify "tiny".
Clarify?
Looking at the followup comments, there are at least 3 equally arguable interpretations of the sentence, involving the linear dimensions (but which dimension: width, length or "size"?) of the infernal pin.
Then, for one reader, nm becomes Nm, a unit of torque.
The sentence is clearly ambiguous. I rest my case.
It is also ambiguous about what is measured, the applied force or the generated voltage and current. If anything, the sentence says the force was measured.
Grammatically the sentence is unworthy of anyone with journalistic training. Technically it contains no useful information whatsoever.
Hey back
The article seems to clearly imply the tiny pin had a width of 20 - 100 nano-metres and that it caused a force that produced a measurable voltage and current. Once I get my head around metres and meters it all seemed to make sense.
Certainly not worth the journalist bashing that followed.
Tiny Pin
It's a tiny pin (20 nano metres long) applying a force (unspecified).
Newton-meter
It is a unit of moment force, or torque.
With piezoelectrics, there is a torque or deformation around an axis, which makes NM the correct term of force to use.
Tiny pin
Simple: it's a tiny pin (20-100 nano metres long) applying a force (unspecified).
Study paves the way to everlasing batteries
I think, the author means by nm, the pressure to relate mechanical energy density to transduce it to electrical energy density.