Power Composites: Structural Materials that Generate and Store Electrical Energy.

摘要

We describe progress in the development of a synthetic multifunctional material: namely a fiber composite with both power and structural function. The structural composite contains batteries encased in piezoelectric tubes. When the structure vibrates the tubes generate electricity that is stored in the batteries; thus the composite material provides a long-term and stable self-recharging source of power that can be used, for example, to drive electronics. We also developed an analytic model to facilitate the design of power composites for specific DoD applications. The approach as illustrated in Figure 1 was to produce battery fibers that can store and deliver electrical energy, insert them into hollow piezoelectric fibers that provide structure and can harvest mechanical energy and charge the battery fibers, and incorporate them in a polymer matrix along with additional structural fibers that increase the fiber batteries were fabricated by coating 7-mil diameter carbon fibers with LiCoO2 cathode material in a scalable, low- cost dip process and coupling them with bare carbon fiber anode fibers. The batteries were characterized with regard to energy, power, and cycle life.