Researchers at the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto said the novel generating system is compact, reliable, low-cost and environmentally friendly.
“Our breakthrough will have a significant social and economic impact by reducing our reliance on non-renewable power sources,” said Waterloo researcher Asif Khan, co-author on the project. “We need these energy-generating materials more critically at this moment than at any other time in history.”
The system is based on the piezoelectric effect, which generates an electrical current by applying pressure, such as mechanical vibrations, to an appropriate substance.
The effect was discovered in 1880, and since then, a limited number of piezoelectric materials, such as quartz and Rochelle salts, have been used in technologies ranging from sonar and ultrasonic imaging to microwave devices.
The problem is that until now, traditional piezoelectric materials used in commercial devices have had limited...