2011/01/01 by Karsten Ahnert, Markus Abel, Matthias Kollosche +2 · 37 citations
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials #Biochemical engineering #Capacitor #Characterization (materials science) #Computer science #Dielectric materials and actuators #Ecology #Economics #Electrical engineering #Energy (signal processing) #Energy harvesting #Engineering #Environmental economics #Environmental science #Figure of merit #Innovative Energy Harvesting Technologies #Materials science #Mathematics #Nanotechnology #Process engineering #Raw material #Renewable energy #Statistics #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1039/c1jm12454d
published in Journal of Materials Chemistry 21(38), 14492 (Royal Society of Chemistry) · 16 pages, 7 figures
openalex publication_date 2011/01/01 · arxiv created 2011/10/14 · arxiv updated 2011/10/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Wave energy harvesting could be a substantial renewable energy source without impact on the global climate and ecology, yet practical attempts have struggled with the problems of wear and catastrophic failure. An innovative technology for ocean wave energy harvesting was recently proposed, based on the use of soft capacitors. This study presents a realistic theoretical and numerical model for the quantitative characterization of this harvesting method. Parameter regions with optimal behavior are found, and novel material descriptors are determined, which dramatically simplify analysis. The characteristics of currently available materials are evaluated, and found to merit a very conservative estimate of 10 years for raw material cost recovery.