| NSF Org: |
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | April 7, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 7, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1463205 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Robert Landers
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $154,355.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $154,355.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
4300 MARTIN LUTHER KING BLVD HOUSTON TX US 77204-3067 (713)743-5773 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
4800 Calhoun Road HOuston TX US 77204-4006 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Dynamics, Control and System D |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
Small sensors -- at the micro or nanoscale -- promise to extend human perception to extreme and previously inaccessible environments. How will these next-generation stand-alone sensor systems be powered? Many existing solutions use piezoelectric materials to convert mechanical vibration into electricity. However, only a small class of materials exhibits practically useful levels of this form of electromechanical coupling, and those typically lose their piezoelectricity at higher temperatures. This precludes their use in precisely the environments where the new classes of sensors are needed most. Furthermore, the highest performing piezoelectric materials contain lead, which creates manufacturing and disposal hazards. This project investigates generation of electricity by an entirely different phenomenon, called flexoelectricity. Unlike piezoelectricity, flexoelectricity is present in all dielectric solids, and thus offers an environmentally compatible alternative to piezoelectrics. This project combines complementary computational and experimental research studies to explore and understand flexoelectricity from atomistic scales to the device level. This work will enable a novel framework for the dramatically enhanced performance of energy harvesting devices.
This collaborative research program combines atomistic and continuum electroelastic modeling, nonlinear dynamic phenomena, nanofabrication, multi-scale experiments, and device characterization to facilitate the establishment of a novel class of revolutionary self-powered sensors and sensing systems at small scales. By bridging the atomistic and continuum theories with rigorous experiments, a fully coupled flexoelectric energy harvester framework will be established to explore the scaling laws for conversion efficiency and power density. For high excitation levels, nonlinear elastic, electroelastic, and dissipative effects in flexoelectric energy harvesting will also be characterized. Based on this fundamentally transformative approach to electromechanical energy harvesting, atomistic modeling of flexoelectricity and continuum-based energy harvesting models will be synergistically coupled with experiments to establish next-generation energy harvesters. Both linear and nonlinear broadband architectures will be explored for harvesting deterministic and stochastic vibrational energy. This research will also establish a framework and thorough understanding of the electroelastic dynamics of nanostructures for use in a variety of other problems involving two-way electromechanical coupling (e.g. sensing, actuation, control) at submicron scales.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
In this collaborative experimental and computational research effort we attempted to elucidate and leverage the science underpinning a novel energy harvesting paradigm that exploits the phenomenon of flexoelectricity and nanoscale size effects.
Although electromechanical coupling phenomenon such as piezoelectricity is highly coveted, it is restricted to only a limited set of materials. The key advantage of flexoelectricity is that it is a phenomenon exhibited by all insulators. In addition, flexoelectricity becomes more and more prominent as the feature size of the material or structure approaches the nanoscale thus allowing size as a design parameter.
Several results emerged from this research project. For example, we addressed the following question: Can the mere crumpling of a paper produce electricity? We analyzed the crumpling of thin elastic sheets and established scaling laws for their electromechanical behavior to prove that an extremely strong flexoelectric response is achieved at submicron length scales. Connecting with recent experiments on crumpling of a polymer paper, we argued that crumpling is a viable energy-harvesting route with applications in wearable electronics and related contexts. Other outcomes that emerged are the use of electrets for enhancing the flexoelectric effect for enhanced energy harvesting, designing eletrocaloric material, and atomistic models to both understand flexoelectricity as well as design new materials.
In regards to the broader impact, a significant number (4) of underrepresented minority (women) students were graduated during the duration of the grant. A short course on nanotechnology was taught at various forums including high school teachers.
Last Modified: 08/31/2019
Modified by: Pradeep Sharma
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