Universal Multienergy Harvester Architecture

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Jan 13;13(1):324-331. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c15075. Epub 2020 Dec 29.

Abstract

The energy available in the ambient vibrations, magnetic fields, and sunlight can be simultaneously or independently harvested using universal architecture. The universal harvester design is shown to effectively convert ambient magnetic fields, vibration, and light into electricity. The architecture is composed of a perovskite solar cell integrated onto a magnetoelectric composite cantilever beam. The efficiency of the large-area perovskite solar cell is shown to reach 15.74% (cell area is >1100% larger than traditional perovskite solar cells) by selecting glass/indium tin oxide (ITO) as the cathode that reduces the charge recombination. The magnetoelectric composite beam is designed to include the effect of the mass and volume of the solar cell on power generation. Results demonstrate that universal energy harvester can simultaneously capture vibration, magnetic fields, and solar irradiation to provide an ultrahigh-power density of 18.6 mW/cm3. The total power generated by the multienergy harvester, including vibration, magnetic field, and solar stimuli, is 23.52 mW from a total surface area of 9.6 cm2 and a total volume of 1.26 cm3. These results will have a tremendous impact on the design of the power sources for Internet of Things sensors and wireless devices.

Keywords: energy harvesting; magnetic field; magnetostriction; multienergy harvesting; perovskite solar cell; piezoelectric; universal architecture; vibration.