Improvement of Pyroelectric Cells for Thermal Energy Harvesting
Department of Mechanical Design Engineering, National Formosa University, No. 64, Wunhua Rd., Huwei Township, Yunlin County 632, Taiwan
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Sensors 2012, 12(1), 534-548; https://doi.org/10.3390/s120100534
Received: 15 December 2011
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Revised: 1 January 2012
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Accepted: 3 January 2012
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Published: 5 January 2012
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
This study proposes trenching piezoelectric (PZT) material in a thicker PZT pyroelectric cell to improve the temperature variation rate to enhance the efficiency of thermal energy-harvesting conversion by pyroelectricity. A thicker pyroelectric cell is beneficial in generating electricity pyroelectrically, but it hinders rapid temperature variations. Therefore, the PZT sheet was fabricated to produce deeper trenches to cause lateral temperature gradients induced by the trenched electrode, enhancing the temperature variation rate under homogeneous heat irradiation. When the trenched electrode type with an electrode width of 200 μm and a cutting depth of 150 μm was used to fabricate a PZT pyroelectric cell with a 200 μm thick PZT sheet, the temperature variation rate was improved by about 55%. Therefore, the trenched electrode design did indeed enhance the temperature variation rate and the efficiency of pyroelectric energy converters.
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Keywords:
pyroelectricity; thermal energy; temperature variation rate; electrode
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MDPI and ACS Style
Hsiao, C.-C.; Siao, A.-S.; Ciou, J.-C. Improvement of Pyroelectric Cells for Thermal Energy Harvesting. Sensors 2012, 12, 534-548. https://doi.org/10.3390/s120100534
AMA Style
Hsiao C-C, Siao A-S, Ciou J-C. Improvement of Pyroelectric Cells for Thermal Energy Harvesting. Sensors. 2012; 12(1):534-548. https://doi.org/10.3390/s120100534
Chicago/Turabian StyleHsiao, Chun-Ching, An-Shen Siao, and Jing-Chih Ciou. 2012. "Improvement of Pyroelectric Cells for Thermal Energy Harvesting" Sensors 12, no. 1: 534-548. https://doi.org/10.3390/s120100534
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