Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T07:36:00.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Variable Thickness IPMC: Capacitance Effect on Energy Harvesting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Rashi Tiwari
Affiliation:
[email protected], University of Nevada, Reno, Mechanical Engineering, Reno, Nevada, United States
Sang-Mun Kim
Affiliation:
[email protected], University of Nevada, Reno, Mechanical Engineering, Reno, Nebraska, United States
Kwang Kim
Affiliation:
[email protected], University of Nevada, Reno, Mechanical Engineering, Reno, Nebraska, United States
Get access

Abstract

Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMCs) are manufactured by electroless deposition of metal on Nafion. This deposition method results in the IPMCs with thickness between 0.17mm to 0.20mm with the electrode thickness of around a few m each. It is now generally accepted that on mechanical deformation IPMC produces charge thus making these materials potentially suitable for energy harvesting applications. Due to thin metal plating and inherited flexibility of the Nafion film the IPMCs suffer in stiffness that may be required for some energy harvesting applications. Also earlier works have shown that 0.20mm thick IPMC produce better battery charging than 0.17mm thick one. Hot pressing, using metal mold, Nafion films was employed to produce thicker and comparatively stiffer IPMCs electroded with Palladium metal. Palladium was used because of shorter manufacturing time. This IPMC shows improved energy harvesting. Due to the increased thickness these IPMCs also function as better capacitors than their conventional counterparts. On application of voltage, these IPMCs show charging and discharging effects of a capacitor. This property of IPMC may be useful for storing charge.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Addington, M., and Schodek, D. L., “Smart Materials and Technologies in Architecture,” Architectural Press, MA (2004).Google Scholar
2. Shahinpoor, M., Kim, K. J. and Mojarrad, M., “Artificial Muscles: Applications of Advanced Polymeric Nano-composites,” Taylor and Francis, New York (2007).Google Scholar
3. Shahinpoor, M., Bar-Cohen, Y., Simpson, J. O., and Smith, J., “Ionic Polymer Metal Composites as Biomimmetic Sensors and Actuators,” presented at SPIE 5th Annual Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials (1998).Google Scholar
4. Oguro, K., “Recipe-IPMC,” (2001).Google Scholar
5. Guan, M. J. and Liao, W.H., “Characteristics of Energy Storage Devices in Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Systems”, J. Of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, Vol. 9, pp. 671680 (2008).Google Scholar
6. Roundy, S., Wright, P. K. and Rabaey, J., “A Study of Low Level Vibrations as the Power Source for Wireless Sensor Node”, Computer Communications, Vol. 26, pp. 11311144 (2003).Google Scholar
7. Umeda, M., Nakamura, K. and Ueha, S., “Analysis of Transformation of Mechanical Impact Energy to Electrical Energy Using a Piezoelectric Vibrator”, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 35, pp. 32673273 (1996).Google Scholar
8. Kimaru, M., “Piezoelectric Generation Device”, US Patent# 5,801,475 (1998).Google Scholar
9. Sterner, T., “Human-Powered Wearable Computing”, IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 35, pp. 618 (1996).Google Scholar
10. Kymissis, J., Kendall, C., Paradiso, J., Gershenfeld, N., “Parasitic Power Harvesting in Shoes”, 2nd IEEE International Conference on Wearable Computing, pp. 132139 (1998).Google Scholar
11. Goldfarb, M. and Jones, L. D., “On the Efficiency of Electric Power Generation With Piezoelectric Ceramics”, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, Vol. 121, pp. 566571 (1999).Google Scholar
12. Clark, W. and Ramsay, M. J., “Smart Material Transducers as Power Sources for MEMS Devices”, International Symposium on Smart Structures and Microsystems, Hong Kong (2000)Google Scholar
13. Sodano, H. A., Magliula, E. A., Park, G. and Inman, D. J., “Electric Power Generation Using Piezoelectric Devices”, 13th International Conference on Adaptive Structures and Technologies, Germany (2000).Google Scholar
14. Newbury, K. and Leo, D. J., “Electromechanical Modeling and Characterization of Ionic Polymer Benders,J. Of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, Vol. 13, pp. 5160 (2002).Google Scholar
15. Tiwari, R., Kim, K. J., and Kim, S.-M., “Ionic Polymer Metal Composites as Energy Harvesters,Smart Structures and Systems, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 549563 (2008).Google Scholar