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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yi Zhou, Ghim Wei Ho
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-06-01
Series:Next Energy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949821X2300025X
_version_ 1797235401941843968
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