Browsing by Author "Beeby, S. P."

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    ItemOpen Access
    Novel thick-foam ferroelectret with engineered voids for energy harvesting applications
    (IOP Publishing: Conference Series / Institute of Physics (IoP), 2016-12-14) Luo, Zhen-Hua; Shi, J.; Beeby, S. P.
    This work reports a novel thick-foam ferroelectret which is designed and engineered for energy harvesting applications. We fabricated this ferroelectret foam by mixing a chemical blowing agent with a polymer solution, then used heat treatment to activate the agent and create voids in the polymer foam. The dimensions of the foam, the density and size of voids can be well controlled in the fabrication process. Therefore, this ferroelectret can be engineered into optimized structure for energy harvesting applications.
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    ItemOpen Access
    PDMS/PVA composite ferroelectret for improved energy harvesting performance
    (IOP Publishing: Conference Series / Institute of Physics (IoP), 2016-12-14) Shi, J.; Lou, Z.; Zhu, D.; Beeby, S. P.
    This paper address the PDMS ferroelectret discharge issue for improved long- term energy harvesting performance. The PDMS/PVA ferroelectret is fabricated using a 3D-printed plastic mould technology and a functional PVA composite layer is introduced. The PDMS/PVA composite ferroelectret achieved 80% piezoelectric coefficient d33 remaining, compared with 40% without the proposed layer over 72 hours. Further, the retained percentage of output voltage is about 73% over 72 hours.