Mechano-electrical conversion for harvesting energy with hybridization of electrostrictive polymers and electrets

In recent years, electroactive polymers have been widely used as smart materials. Electromechanical applications are currently focused on energy harvesting, including the development of autonomous device. During the last few years, electrostrictive polymers have been investigated as for energy harvesting. However, for energy scavenging, a static field is necessary, a solution to avoid this problem involves the hybridization of electrostrictive polymers with electrets. The present work has been dedicated to the analytical modeling based on electrostatic and electrostrictive equations. An experimental study was carried out on polyurethane and P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) films, either without filler or filled with carbon nanopowder. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.