Large enhancement of transduction coefficient in PZN-PZT energy harvesting system through introducing low-εr PIN relaxor

Abstract Designing piezoceramics with a large transduction coefficient ( d 33 × g 33 ) is key to improving the power generation of piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs). However, in popular PEH materials such as Pb(Zn 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -Pb(Zr 1/2 Ti 1/2 )O 3 (PZN-PZT), the same trend in the variation of d 33 and e r makes it difficult to achieve a large d 33 × g 33 . In this work, we introduced low- e r Pb(In 1/2 Nb 1/2 )O 3 (PIN) into the PZN-PZT matrix to pull down the e r of the quaternary system. This simultaneously stabilized d 33 in a certain range due to the refinement of the domain structure and increased the electrostrictive coefficient ( Q 33 ), and consequently the d 33 × g 33 value increased to 16081 × 10 −15  m 2 /N for the optimal composition. We assembled a cantilever beam type PEH from the preferred material with a power density up to 3.37 μW/mm 3 at 1 g acceleration, and demonstrated its use to charge an electrolytic capacitor to drive commercial blue LEDs and a speed sensor.