Elsevier

Nano Energy

Volume 86, August 2021, 106074
Nano Energy

Full paper
Multifunctional meta-tribomaterial nanogenerators for energy harvesting and active sensing

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2021.106074Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A novel SCMM concept to transform metamaterials into nanogenerators and active sensing mediums.

  • Meta-tribomaterial systems composed of integrated self-recovering triboelectric microstructures.

  • Understanding the mechanical and electrical behavior of the multifunctional SCMM systems.

  • Prototyping self-powering and self-sensing material systems under the SCMM concept.

Abstract

Discovering novel multifunctional metamaterials with energy harvesting and sensing functionalities is likely to be the next technological evolution of the metamaterial science. Here, we introduce a novel concept called self-aware composite mechanical metamaterial (SCMM) that can transform mechanical metamaterials into nanogenerators and active sensing mediums. In pursuit of this goal, we examine new paradigms where finely tailored and seamlessly integrated self-recovering snapping microstructures composed of topologically different triboelectric materials can form self-powering and self-sensing meta-tribomaterial systems. We explore various deformation mechanisms required to induce contact electrification between these snapping microstructures under periodic deformations. The multifunctional meta-tribomaterial systems created under the SCMM concept will act as triboelectric nanogenerators capable of generating electrical signals in response to the applied mechanical excitations. The generated electrical signal can be used for active sensing of the applied force and can be stored for empowering sensors and embedded electronics. We conduct theoretical and experimental studies to understand the mechanical and electrical behavior of the multifunctional SCMM systems. The broad application of the proposed SCMM concept for designing artificial materials with novel properties and functionalities is highlighted via prototyping self-powering and self-sensing blood vessel stents and shock absorbers.

Introduction

One of the obstacles that is limiting the development of deployable integrated sensing and actuation solutions in multifunctional systems is the scarcity of power. Many applications require the use of miniaturized low-powered sensing and actuation systems. In spite of the significant developments in the area of localized sensing and actuation [1], [2], most of the developed systems to date still rely on batteries thus limiting the lifetime of the device as well as the diagnosis possibilities. Thus, energy harvesting has been a topic given great attention in recent years as a viable alternative [3]. The key parameter of any energy harvesting device is its conversion efficiency that depends strongly on the conversion medium. In the past, natural materials were often chosen as conversion media for different energy harvesting devices. However, the conversion efficiency is limited by the properties of natural material and structures. To address these issues, metamaterials have been introduced for energy harvesting in recent years [4]. Metamaterials with non-traditional physical behaviors provide innovative mechanisms for energy harvesting. A survey of the literature reveals that metamaterials used for energy harvesting mainly include electromagnetic metamaterials, photonic crystals and acoustic metamaterials [5], [6]. As architected, structural materials comprised of engineered microstructures, mechanical metamaterials are fairly new branch of metamaterial systems that have marked their debut during the last few years [7], [8], [9]. Mechanical metamaterials have inspired the popularity of research on advanced materials with extraordinary properties [10], [11], [12]. The unusual mechanical properties often include either negative properties or extreme properties. Examples of negative properties are negative Poisson’s ratio [13], [14], negative thermal expansion coefficient [12], negative compressibility [11], and negative stiffness [15], [16]. Extremely high stiffness to mass ratio [17], and extremely high (low) resistance against deformation in specific directions [18] are examples of the extreme properties. The mechanical metamaterial concept is appealing in its potential to accelerate the materials discovery and development by satisfying the requirements of specific and desired mechanical properties. Research efforts have been dedicated to exploring the performance of mechanical metamaterial and obtaining superior mechanical properties using the structure strategy [19], [20], [21].

Studies have been particularly carried out on 2D layout and 3D form structures that are maintained uniform in the thickness direction [13], [22]. Negative Poisson ratio has been reported from those structures due to the embedded hole-like designs. Recent interest has been shifted to utilize multifunctional mechanical metamaterial in devices and techniques in energy absorption, artificial muscles, drug delivery, and soft robots [23]. However, a substantial portion of the current effort in the arena of multifunctional mechanical metamaterials has been merely going into exploring new geometrical design of micro/nano-architectures to improve or identify unusual sets of mechanical properties [23]. There is a critical shortage in research needed to engineer new aspects of functionalities into the texture of mechanical metamaterials for multifunctional applications. In particular, introducing the self-powering and self-sensing functionality into the material design could in theory lay the foundation for living engineered materials and structures that can empower, sense and program themselves. Despite its capacity to open new horizons for mechanical metamaterials, the entire concept of mechanical metamaterials for energy harvesting is still in its infancy. The limited studies in this arena are merely based on attaching external energy harvesting transducers to the structural frame of the metamaterial to convert its localized deformations into electric energy [8], [24], [25]. A major issue with such segregated designs is that added mass and increased drag due to attaching an external energy harvesting transducer will significantly degrade the structural performance of the mechanical metamaterial system. Yet, a major challenge ahead is how to develop mechanical metamaterial systems that can utilize their entire constituent components as an energy harvesting medium for self-powering or local powering of sensing and actuating devices.

Here, we aim to advance the knowledge and technology required to create a new class of multifunctional mechanical metamaterial systems with energy harvesting functionality. The meta-tribomaterial systems created under the proposed self-aware composite mechanical metamaterial (SCMM) concept are composed of finely tailored and topologically different triboelectric microstructures. The beauty of the concept is that the entire meta-tribomaterial structure serves as a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) as well as an active sensing medium to directly collect information about its operating environment. This has not been possible with any competing mechanical metamaterial technologies so far. A meta-tribomaterial naturally inherits the enhanced mechanical properties offered by classical mechanical metamaterials. Furthermore, a practical aspect of the SCMM concept is that it enables designing layered composite systems using a wide range of the organic and inorganic materials from the triboelectric series. Theoretical and experimental studies are conducted to understand the mechanical and electrical behavior of the composite mechanical meta-tribomaterials designed according to the SCMM concept. Thereafter, we demonstrate the feasibility of integrating the SCMM mechanisms to design multifunctional systems for real-life engineering applications such as self-sensing and self-powering cardiovascular stents and shock absorbers.

Section snippets

Results and discussion

The quest for a truly multifunctional mechanical metamaterial with energy harvesting, sensing and programmability has been the Holy Grail for material scientists. SCMM is a new generation of composite mechanical metamaterials offering self-powering and self-sensing functionalities along with the boosted mechanical properties. The idea behind developing any SCMM system is that finely tailored and seamlessly integrated microstructures composed of topologically different triboelectric materials

Conclusion

In summary, we proposed a new generation of meta-tribomaterial nanogenerators with energy harvesting and sensing functionalities. We leveraged advances in metamaterial design and energy harvesting to engineer new aspects of intelligence into the texture of materials for multifunctional applications. The so-called SCMM systems are fabricated using finely tailored and topologically different triboelectric microstructures. Experiments and theoretical analyses were conducted to quantitatively

Fabrication of the SCMMs at the multiscale

In this study, the SCMM snapping, shock absorber and esophageal stent prototypes were fabricated using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing technique. Raise3D Pro2 Dual Extruder 3D Printer was used to fabricate the composite samples as one integrated unit using two conductive and non-conductive materials. The fabrication process can be divided into three steps: 1) 3D modeling of the proposed design using AutoCAD and SolidWorks, 2) 3D printing of the design using a dual extruder 3D

Author contributions

The principal investigator is A.H.A who has conceived the SCMM concept. K.B., Q.Z., A.H.A. and Z.L.W. conceived the experiments. K.B. and Q.Z. carried out the design and fabrication supervised by A.H.A. K.B. and P.J. performed the theoretical study. K.B. and Q.Z. performed the experiments. K.B., Q.Z., A.H.A., Z.L.W. and P.J. analyzed and interpreted the data. A.H.A., K.B. and P.J. wrote the manuscript draft and all the authors discussed the results and contributed to writing portions of the

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

Research reported in this work is supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number R21AR075242-01. This research is a continuation of U.S. Provisional Pat. Ser. No. 63/048943, entitled “Self-Sensing and Self-Charging Multifunctional Metamaterials”, filed on July 7, 2020 and supported by the startup funds from the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

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