Battery alternative: Harvesting energy from vibrations

Development of energy harvesting systems is becoming increasingly important. This is due to an increased need to produce self-charging, portable, implantable and wireless electronics with extended lifespans. Operation of these devices require low power which is normally supplied by batteries that require regular replacement. Emphasis has been placed on scavenging vibrational energy as an alternative to batteries. A notable breakthrough is the discovery that mechanical buckling (change of curvature from concave to convex and vice versa) in freestanding graphene occurs spontaneously at room temperature. This spontaneous mechanical buckling is a source of renewable energy that is to be harvested. Here, I will discuss the relationship between the energy barrier which separates the two lowest energy configurations to strain and height of the ripple and model the ripple curvature inversion dynamic due to thermal energy using Langevin’s equation for freestanding graphene. Mechanical power calculations estimates that a naturally occurring ripple can yield up to and a ripple can yield Thus a quartz wristwatch whose approximate consumption is can be powered by a ripple.