Mechanics of flexible and stretchable piezoelectrics for energy harvesting

As rapid development in wearable/implantable electronic devices benefit human life in daily health monitoring and disease treatment medically, all kinds of flexible and/or stretchable electronic devices are booming, together with which is the demanding of energy supply with similar mechanical property. Due to its ability in converting mechanical energy lying in human body into electric energy, energy harvesters based on piezoelectric materials are promising for applications in wearable/ implantable device’s energy supply in a renewable, clean and life-long way. Here the mechanics of traditional piezoelectrics in energy harvesting is reviewed, including why piezoelectricity is the choice for minor energy harvesting to power the implantable/wearable electronics and how. Different kinds of up to date flexible piezoelectric devices for energy harvesting are introduced, such as nanogenerators based on ZnO and thin and conformal energy harvester based on PZT. A detailed theoretical model of the flexible thin film energy harvester based on PZT nanoribbons is summarized, together with the in vivo demonstration of energy harvesting by integrating it with swine heart. Then the initial researches on stretchable energy harvesters based on piezoelectric material in wavy or serpentine configuration are introduced as well.