Archived Material can turn sunlight, heat and movement into electricity - all at once (phys.org)
submitted ago by Owlchemy
Posted by: Owlchemy
Posting time: 3.8 years ago on
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Archived on: 5/9/2017 10:00:00 AM
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Archived Material can turn sunlight, heat and movement into electricity - all at once (phys.org)
submitted ago by Owlchemy
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[–] Artooweaboo 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
The pyroelectric coefficient of the material is reported as 26 μC/m2 K, this compares poorly to lots of other materials; see the following paper. http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.2062916
Also the authors talk about how it also has piezoelectric, and other energy harvesting properties. But where exactly do we have a place for a material that makes energy, poorly, from mechanical, electrical, and thermal stresses? For example, the first four citations list papers that discuss hybrid energy generation materials. The first one considers a dual solar cell/ piezoelectric generator. It harvests sunlight (great) and ultrasonic energy from the surroundings (lol wat). Piezoelectricity is generated from deformation of the crystal, I'm not sure I want my solar cell being deformed in a magnitude and at a frequency that actually generates a useful output. I could go on, but I won't.
I think what happened is they found this material to be interesting--- it is no doubt--- but needed to write a paper and 'sexy/sensational' science sells(gets grant money).
[–] 7943998? 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
That's what I suspected too, which is why I asked.
Journalistic articles on science often ignore that same factor: quantity. Like when they say a compound found in red wine prolongs life, they don't mention that you'd need to drink 1000 bottles of red wine a day.
[–] Drunkenmoba ago
I'd be more interested if this material could be integrated into upper reaches of skyscrapers so the natural sunlight and wind motions generate little bits of electricity to help offset powering the building costs.