High-performance nanogenerator devices for energy harvesting applications

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The importance of air travel as a fast and efficient form of transport of passengers and cargo continuously increases in the current context of globalization and population growth. Without exception, the highest priority for air travel is the structural integrity of the aircraft itself. Aircraft structural health monitoring (SHM) is the assessment of an aircraft's structural condition using advanced sensor technologies, where data can be collected, transferred and analyzed to assess vehicle integrity. Wired sensors have been incorporated and deployed in aircrafts for the SHM purpose. Nevertheless, the deployment of wired sensors is largely constrained due to the extra weight of the running wires (for power supply and signal transmission) and the installation/maintenance difficulties. Shimco North America Inc. (Shimco), a Cambridge-based company with a leading position in the shim industry, identified this gap and niche market. In 2015 Shimco decided to collaborate with the University of Waterloo to develop novel self-powered sensor technologies that can be incorporated in their next-generation shim products. After completing one NSERC Engage project in 2016-2017, one Ontario Center of Excellence (OCE) VIP II project (2017-2019) and one NSERC CRD project (2018-2020, ongoing), the UW team and Shimco have successfully developed the first generation of self-powered sensors based on triboelectric devices. In a proof-of-the-concept demo system, an energy harvesting unit, an energy collection and storage unit and a wireless transmission unit have been integrated. Inspired by the excellent progress, Shimco decides to continue the collaboration with the UW team. In this follow-up project, high-performance piezoelectric nanogenerators will be developed by exploring new materials, advanced fabrication and optimized device structure and packaging. This project will get the energy harvesting technologies mature for the commercialization phase, enable Shimco to develop the next generation, high-value shim products and, provide excellent training opportunities for HQP in the fields of nanotechnologies, material sciences, nanoelectronics and shim manufacture.