Electroactive materials for mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion in FunMAT group

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For many years, ambient energy harvesting is a major research topic owing to obvious environmental reasons. For instance, among the available energy sources, mechanical energy (including vibrational energy, forces,…) is ubiquitous and versatile in our surrounding environment. Thus, micro energy harvesting in the μW to mW range is widely used in order to address the replacement of traditional batteries to electrically power miniature, autonomous wireless (ultra-) low power devices. This is presently of paramount importance for the development of smart cities in which self-powered communicating sensors are distributed for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

In this context, this talk will give an overview of the research activities of FunMAT (Functional Materials) team of IETR, site of Nantes University, in the field of electromechanical energy conversion with electroactive materials.
 

A focus will be made on three transduction mechanisms in solid state matter: piezoelectricity, triboelectricity and flexoelectricity in/with soft polymers. The inherent flexibility of this class of materials makes them good candidates for low frequency (<100 Hz) energy harvesting and strain/curvature sensing. Limited carbon footprint is also considered by using bio sourced polymer matrices.

At last, the concept of Schottky generators based on the tribovoltaic effect as a promising mechanical-to-electrical coupling for next-generation self-powered devices will be presented.

Bio

Prof. Benoit Guiffard (Nantes University, France) ,team co-leader of the « FunMAT » (Functional Materials) team of the Institute of Electronics and digital Technologies (IETR)

Benoit Guiffard joined the LGEF Laboratory at INSA, University of Lyon, France in 1996, where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in inorganic chemistry in 1999. He became an Associate Professor at INSA in 2000 when he worked on doped ferroelectric materials (ceramics, single crystals). His following research interests included the development of electroactive polymer composites exhibiting electromechanical coupling for environmental energy scavenging applications and large electric field actuation performance. In 2011, he has been hired as a Professor at the University of Nantes, France (IETR Lab, Functional Materials group), where he currently works on ferroelectric thin films and flexoelectric polymer composite films. The main target applications are the integration of functional materials in smart sensors and vibrating energy harvesting devices. Prof. B. Guiffard is the co-author of 5 patents, 90 articles in refereed journals and over 75 presentations on electroactive materials and applications.