Pyroelectric energy harvesting with a high Curie temperature material LiNbO3

Energy harvesting has been gaining significant interest as a potential solution for energizing next generation sensor and energy storage devices. The most widely investigated material for piezoelectric and pyroelectric energy harvesting to date is PZT (Lead Zirconate Titanate), owing to its good piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties. However, Lead is detrimental to human health and to the environment. Hence, alternative materials are required to be investigated for this purpose. In this paper, a lead free material Lithium Niobate (LNB) is reported as a potential material for pyroelectric energy harvesting. Although, it has lower pyroelectric properties than PZT, it has better properties than other lead free alternatives of PZT such as ZnO. In addition, LNB has a high curie point of 1142 degrees C, which makes it suitable for high temperature environment where other pyroelectric materials are not suitable. Therefore, a single crystal LNB has been investigated as a source of energy harvesting under alternative heating and cooling environment. A commercial 0.2 F supercapacitor was used as the energy storage device.