Past few decades were concentrated on researches related to effective energy harvesting applied in modern technologies,
MEMS or MOEMS systems. There are many methods for harvesting energy as, for example, usage of electromagnetic
devices, but most dramatic changes were noticed in the usage of piezoelectric materials in small scale devices. Major
limitation faced was too small generated power by piezoelectric materials or high resonant frequencies of such smallscale
harvesters. In this research, novel composite piezoelectric material was created by mixing PZT powder with 20%
solution of polyvinyl butyral in benzyl alcohol. Obtained paste was screen printed on copper foil using 325 mesh
stainless steel screen and dried for 30 min at 100 °C. Polyvinyl butyral ensures good adhesion and flexibility of a new
material at the conditions that requires strong binding. Five types of a composite piezoelectric material with different
concentrations of PZT (40%, 50%, 60%, 70% and 80 %) were produced. As the results showed, these harvesters were
able to transform mechanical strain energy into electric potential and, v.v. In experimental setup, electromagnetic shaker
was used to excite energy harvester that is fixed in the custom-built clamp, while generated electric potential were
registered with USB oscilloscope PICO 3424. The designed devices generate up to 80 μV at 50 Hz excitation. This
property can be applied to power microsystem devices or to use them in portable electronics and wireless sensors.
However, the main advantage of the created composite piezoelectric material is possibility to apply it on any uniform or
nonuniform vibrating surface and to transform low frequency vibrations into electricity.
We present a new group of piezoelectric nanocomposite thin films based on integrating piezoelectric material poly(vinylidene fluoride) and nanoparticles of barium titanate in a matrix of an organic polymer poly(methyl methacrylate). Implementation of piezoelectric properties in designed new nanocomposites allows us not only to increase the sensitivity and functionality of the overall system, where this material is used, but also to expand the application fields in sensing and actuating systems. Results implied that new nanostructures fabricated by nanoimprint lithography exhibit good piezoelectric, surface, and mechanical properties and allow independent control of tribological properties. Formed nanocomposite systems were integrated in designing optical components employed in medicine for sensing applications.
In the recent years fundamental research involving the nanodimensional materials has received enormous momentum for
observing and understanding new types of plasmonic materials and their physical phenomena occurring in the nanoscale.
Mechanical and optical properties of these polymer based nanocomposite structures depend not only on type, dimensions
and concentration of filler material, but also on a kind of polymer matrix used. By proper selection of polymer matrix
and nanofillers, it is possible to engineer nanocomposite materials with certain favorable properties. One of the most
striking features of nanocomposite materials is that they can expose unique optical properties that are not intrinsic to
natural materials. In these researches, nanocomposite structures were formed using polymer (PMMA) as a matrix, and
silver nanoparticles as fillers. By hot embossing procedure a diffraction grating was imprinted on formed layers. The
effect of UV exposure time on nanocomposite structures morphology, optical (diffraction effectiveness, absorbance) and
mechanical properties was investigated. Results were confirmed by UV-VIS spectrometer, Laser Diffractometer, PMT-
3 and AFM. Investigations proposed new nanocomposite structures as plasmonic materials with improved optical and
mechanical properties, which may be applied for a number of technological applications: micro-electro-mechanical
devices, optical devices, various plasmonic sensors, or even in DNA nanotechnology.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.