3D printed Free Energy Reclaiming nonreciprocal Composites, 3D-FreeERC

Found Competition: First Team, Fnp

Application Round: 1/2023

Acronym: 3D-FreeERC

Project Summary:

The goal of the project is to apply functional composite materials tailored for additive manufacturing combined with new types of metamaterials and metastructures with non-reciprocal characteristics to fabricate 3D-printed energy harvesters. Research in this area is the next step based on the results of the projects carried out over the past few years, focused on the development of composite materials for printed and structured electronics. During the previous projects new research paths were developed, also in the area of energy conversion and storage. The search for alternative, environmentally friendly energy sources with a positive impact on socio-economic development, providing independence from conflict materials is one of the key challenges of modern civilisation. Widespread use of renewable energy sources can be supported with the reclaiming of waste energy lost in industry and housing as heat, vibrations or noise, as well as from the surrounding electromagnetic smog, using thermoelectric generators (TEG), piezo/triboelectric generators (P/TENG) and radio frequency energy harvesters (RFEH). Electronic systems with autonomous power sources utilising waste energy harvesting are already among us, in the form of smartwatches charged from the heat of our bodies, sensors and communication systems drawing energy from radio waves, and even toys powered by our muscles. The research gap addressed by this project is adapting the amazing phenomenon of non-reciprocal metamaterials and metastructures for 3D-printed energy harvesters with a new class of nanocomposites. This approach allows the improvement of the efficiency of energy harvesting and introduces new production formats (embedded or flexible) with the use of low-cost and readily available large-scale production approaches.