Vibration is a common, usually wasted energy, and an attractive target for sustainable electricity generation. In this work, we introduce a new working mechanism to the vibration energy harvesting community by contributing a spherical magnetoelastic generator (S-MEG), which permits multidirectional vibration and is highly adaptable to many natural oscillation frequencies, exhibiting a resonant frequency of 24 Hz and a relatively wide working bandwidth of 15 Hz in the low-frequency range. It also features a low internal impedance of 70 Ω, which can respectively deliver a maximum short-circuit current density of 7.962 A·m-2 and a power density of 15.1 mW·m-2. To demonstrate the capability of S-MEG for ambient vibration energy harvesting, a 220 μF commercial capacitor was successfully charged to 2 V within 25 s, sustainably driving wearable bioelectronics for multiple physiological information monitoring. It could also harvest multidirectional vibration energy from both hand-shaking and bicycle-riding, generating approximately 2.5 mA and 6 mA alternating current from the motions, respectively, even with heavy perspiration or on a rainy day without the need for encapsulation. In summary, this work brings forth an appealing platform technology to the community of vibration energy harvesting, holding a collection of compelling features, including high current density, low inner impedance, intrinsic waterproofness, and scalability for large-scale vibration energy harvesting.
Keywords: energy harvesting; giant magnetoelastic effect; magnetic induction; magnetoelastic generator; vibration.