Pyroelectric heat harvesting, what’s next
Harvesting all-present environmental waste heat of decentralized, disordered, and diffused forms promises energy sustainability and carbon neutrality to meet the UN’s climate target [1]. The non-static waste heat or temporal temperature change (dT/dt), which is of equal importance as the spatial tem...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-06-01
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Series: | Next Energy |
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Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949821X2300025X |
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author | Yi Zhou Ghim Wei Ho |
author_facet | Yi Zhou Ghim Wei Ho |
author_sort | Yi Zhou |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Harvesting all-present environmental waste heat of decentralized, disordered, and diffused forms promises energy sustainability and carbon neutrality to meet the UN’s climate target [1]. The non-static waste heat or temporal temperature change (dT/dt), which is of equal importance as the spatial temperature gradient (dT/dx) [2], though commonly existed in the surroundings (e.g., human respiration, water vapours, and exhaust pipes; Fig. 1 and Table S1) according to the second law of thermodynamics, is still far from practice due to inefficiency, intricacy, and instability in powering consumer electronics [3,4]. Providentially, the pyroelectric effect allows for scavenging temporal temperature variations via spontaneous polarization change, making it an attractive approach for direct heat-to-electricity conversion from non-static thermal sources. Pyroelectricity is typically determined by p = ∂P/∂T (P = PS + PE, PE = εE) [5,6], where p is the pyroelectric coefficient, PS and PE are spontaneous and electric polarizations with respect to the applied thermal field and electric field (E), respectively, and ε is the dielectric constant. While tremendous efforts have been made to improve the p of polar materials (up to ∼ 10 mC m−2 °C−1) [7] and the power density of heat harvesters (up to ∼ 10 mW m−2) [8–10] over the past 50 years (Table S2), their large intrinsic impedance (in the level of MΩ) and low energy conversion efficiency (0.1‰) [11] have hindered the potential implications in the sustainable power supply of ever-increasing IoT-based electronics demands. In this short review, we first discuss the fundamental of electric polarization manipulation of typical polar materials for boosting p. Then, the state-of-the-art p versus Curie temperature (TCurie) of various pyroelectric materials is benchmarked. Next, paradigm-changing progress in tailoring the material properties and device configurations, as well as external electric/thermal field modulations, is surveyed. Finally, the review concludes by proposing challenges and opportunities for the next sustainable pyroelectric heat harvesting. |
first_indexed | 2024-04-24T16:47:23Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-72af511db7534892afca7f01c53ac2c6 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2949-821X |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-24T16:47:23Z |
publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
publisher | Elsevier |
record_format | Article |
series | Next Energy |
spelling | doaj.art-72af511db7534892afca7f01c53ac2c62024-03-29T05:52:13ZengElsevierNext Energy2949-821X2023-06-0112100026Pyroelectric heat harvesting, what’s nextYi Zhou0Ghim Wei Ho1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583, SingaporeDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583, Singapore; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117575, Singapore; Corresponding author at: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583, Singapore.Harvesting all-present environmental waste heat of decentralized, disordered, and diffused forms promises energy sustainability and carbon neutrality to meet the UN’s climate target [1]. The non-static waste heat or temporal temperature change (dT/dt), which is of equal importance as the spatial temperature gradient (dT/dx) [2], though commonly existed in the surroundings (e.g., human respiration, water vapours, and exhaust pipes; Fig. 1 and Table S1) according to the second law of thermodynamics, is still far from practice due to inefficiency, intricacy, and instability in powering consumer electronics [3,4]. Providentially, the pyroelectric effect allows for scavenging temporal temperature variations via spontaneous polarization change, making it an attractive approach for direct heat-to-electricity conversion from non-static thermal sources. Pyroelectricity is typically determined by p = ∂P/∂T (P = PS + PE, PE = εE) [5,6], where p is the pyroelectric coefficient, PS and PE are spontaneous and electric polarizations with respect to the applied thermal field and electric field (E), respectively, and ε is the dielectric constant. While tremendous efforts have been made to improve the p of polar materials (up to ∼ 10 mC m−2 °C−1) [7] and the power density of heat harvesters (up to ∼ 10 mW m−2) [8–10] over the past 50 years (Table S2), their large intrinsic impedance (in the level of MΩ) and low energy conversion efficiency (0.1‰) [11] have hindered the potential implications in the sustainable power supply of ever-increasing IoT-based electronics demands. In this short review, we first discuss the fundamental of electric polarization manipulation of typical polar materials for boosting p. Then, the state-of-the-art p versus Curie temperature (TCurie) of various pyroelectric materials is benchmarked. Next, paradigm-changing progress in tailoring the material properties and device configurations, as well as external electric/thermal field modulations, is surveyed. Finally, the review concludes by proposing challenges and opportunities for the next sustainable pyroelectric heat harvesting.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949821X2300025XPyroelectric heat harvestingPyroelectric materialsHeat mainpulationLow-grade heat harvestingEnergy sustainability |
spellingShingle | Yi Zhou Ghim Wei Ho Pyroelectric heat harvesting, what’s next Next Energy Pyroelectric heat harvesting Pyroelectric materials Heat mainpulation Low-grade heat harvesting Energy sustainability |
title | Pyroelectric heat harvesting, what’s next |
title_full | Pyroelectric heat harvesting, what’s next |
title_fullStr | Pyroelectric heat harvesting, what’s next |
title_full_unstemmed | Pyroelectric heat harvesting, what’s next |
title_short | Pyroelectric heat harvesting, what’s next |
title_sort | pyroelectric heat harvesting what s next |
topic | Pyroelectric heat harvesting Pyroelectric materials Heat mainpulation Low-grade heat harvesting Energy sustainability |
url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949821X2300025X |
work_keys_str_mv | AT yizhou pyroelectricheatharvestingwhatsnext AT ghimweiho pyroelectricheatharvestingwhatsnext |