An Ionic Polymer Metal Composite Based Electrochemical Conversion System in the Ocean

摘要

In the ocean, there are a wide variety of offshore plants, and these stand-alone plants require electricalenergy. Turbines can be used to convert ocean kinetic energy into electrical energy but these turbinesare fixed structures, which are not advantageous. Electro active polymers are playing an important roledue to their electricity generation characteristics corresponding to mechanical stimuli. Piezoelectricmaterials have long been used to turn kinetic energy into electrical energy. Although they have showedremarkable electrical energy generation in several applications, their brittleness and responsecharacteristics only to high frequency stimuli limit their various applications. The use of ionic polymermetal composites can be a solution to overcome the drawbacks of piezoelectric materials since ionicmaterials are soft and they better respond to the low frequency stimuli. Moreover their intimacy withwater enables them to be used in water environment, which is fit for ocean kinetic energy harvesting.However, they show low energy generation density per unit area when compared with other energysources. In this study, an ocean kinetic energy harvesting module has been constructed and operatedwith newly developed graphene-based ionic polymer metal composite as an electrochemical material.The module can be relocated to accommodate certain applications to efficiently capture both verticalwaves and horizontal ocean currents to supply electricity to stand-alone offshore plants. The moduleproduces electrical energy over the target of 120 Wh and up to 600 Wh for 20 days. Since then, thegrowth of algae and barnacles on the module retard the electrochemical material motion and disruptharvesting of the electrical energy. The ocean kinetic energy harvesting module has the potential toInt. J. Electrochem. Sci., Vol. 9, 2014 8068coexist with marine environments and represent an advance toward the sustainable utilization anddevelopment of marine resources.