Harvesting thermal energy (via radiation) using pyroelectric materials (PZT-5H): An experimental study

Abstract

The field of waste thermal energy harvesting has experienced significant growth over the past few years. This paper presents an experimental study on thermal radiation to electrical energy conversion using pyroelectric material (PbZrxTi1-xO3 (PZT-5H)). Pyroelectric material was exposed to UV lamp with a constant frequency of 0.5 Hz and another surface of sample was continuously cooled via natural air fan (for generation continuous temporal gradient in material). Maximum value of stored energy was 1.75 µJ across 100 µF without load resistance. Maximum power output was found to be 0.76 µW across load resistance of 3 MΩ and 10 µF.