Investigation of new advanced materials and structures for development of energy harvesting devices

研究用于开发能量收集装置的新型先进材料和结构

• 批准号: 2891963
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2891963
• 关键词: Investigation; new; advanced; materials; structures

Background The wholesome concept of smart life by the embedment of innumerable optoelectronic/electronic components and sensors in small devices (smart-watches, smart-phones, tablet) and larger ones (drones, electric-vehicles, robots) is fascinating and era-driven. However, a major issue encountered to these electronic devices is their dependence on a connected power source, hindering their applicability in health-monitoring/care, defence, communication, internet-of-things, and smart-cities/buildings. This has put an immense demand for energy generation which has consequently increased its price and use of non-environmentally friendly production routes to cope with the demand. To overcome this challenge, a cost-effective "greener" energy solution capable of harvesting wasted energy from surrounding environment will make cities to be more sustainable (SDG11) and less impactful on the climate through the improvement of the air quality (SDG13) also contributing to achieve more affordable and clean energy (SDG7) to power sensing platforms and electronics while reducing their downtimes.AimsThis project is aimed at investigating novel advanced materials deposited by physical vapor deposition (PVD) methods, to develop energy harvesting devices capable to power small electric devices and sensors.Project descriptionThe project will utilise state-of-the-art PVD technology available at James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC) for deposition of dielectric thin films materials at clean-room environment. Material properties will be optimised (crystallinity, surface charge density, dielectric permittivity, roughness, intrinsic stress, hardness, etc.) to use resulting films as active materials for the development of triboelectric and piezoelectric nanogenerators (TENG and PENG). For that, resulting semiconductor thin films will be characterised using techniques advanced material characterisation techniques (SEM, EDX, Raman, stress, AFM, optical profilometry, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and CPD) and will be post-treated (thermal annealing and RTA under controlled gas environment) to further optimise material properties, also at JWNC. Moreover, the project will also comprise the miniaturisation of the TENG/PENG using state-of-the-art lithography tools at JWNC to make the compatible with portable applications (e.g., powering smart phones, and wearable electronic devices). Resulting energy harvesting devices will be integrated with energy storage devices (i.e., supercapacitors) through power management modules (PMM) design to optimise the output power of the devices. Moreover, the use of Python will be essential to simulate TENG/PENG power output through the theoretical distance dependent model (DDM). Validity of the energy system will be tested in various sensing platforms, including chemical sensors, and photodetectors utilised in applications such as health monitoring and pollution monitoring (i.e., CO2 and NO detection), as well as energy sources for small robots and drones.

背景 通过在小型设备（智能手表、智能手机、平板电脑）和大型设备（无人机、电动汽车、机器人）中嵌入无数光电/电子元件和传感器，智能生活的健康概念令人着迷且受时代驱动。 。然而，这些电子设备遇到的一个主要问题是它们对连接电源的依赖，阻碍了它们在健康监测/护理、国防、通信、物联网和智能城市/建筑中的应用。这对能源产生提出了巨大的需求，从而提高了其价格并使用非环境友好的生产路线来满足需求。为了克服这一挑战，一种能够从周围环境中收集浪费能源的经济高效的“绿色”能源解决方案将使城市更加可持续发展（SDG11），并通过改善空气质量（SDG13）减少对气候的影响，同时也有助于实现更实惠的清洁能源 (SDG7) 为传感平台和电子设备供电，同时减少停机时间。目标该项目旨在研究通过物理气相沉积 (PVD) 方法沉积的新型先进材料，开发能够为传感平台和电子设备供电的能量收集设备小型电子设备和传感器。项目描述该项目将利用詹姆斯·瓦特纳米加工中心 (JWNC) 提供的最先进的 PVD ​​技术在洁净室环境中沉积介电薄膜材料。将优化材料特性（结晶度、表面电荷密度、介电常数、粗糙度、内应力、硬度等），以使用所得薄膜作为活性材料来开发摩擦电和压电纳米发电机（TENG 和 PENG）。为此，将使用先进的材料表征技术（SEM、EDX、拉曼、应力、AFM、光学轮廓测定法、光谱椭圆光度法和 CPD）对所得半导体薄膜进行表征，并将进行后处理（热退火和受控气体下的 RTA）环境）以进一步优化材料性能，同样在 JWNC。此外，该项目还将包括使用 JWNC 最先进的光刻工具对 TENG/PENG 进行小型化，以使其与便携式应用（例如为智能手机和可穿戴电子设备供电）兼容。由此产生的能量收集设备将通过电源管理模块（PMM）设计与能量存储设备（即超级电容器）集成，以优化设备的输出功率。此外，使用 Python 通过理论距离相关模型 (DDM) 模拟 TENG/PENG 功率输出至关重要。能源系统的有效性将在各种传感平台上进行测试，包括化学传感器和用于健康监测和污染监测（即二氧化碳和一氧化氮检测）等应用的光电探测器，以及小型机器人和无人机的能源。