Diego Delfin

Concept and Model of a Metamaterial-Based Passive Wireless Temperature Sensor for Harsh Environment Applications

Wireless passive temperature sensors are receiving increasing attention due to the ever-growing need of improving energy efficient and precise monitoring of temperature in high-temperature energy conversion systems, such as gas turbines and coal-based power plants. Unfortunately, the harsh environment, such as high temperature and corrosive atmosphere present in these systems, has significantly limited the reliability and increased the costs of current solutions. Therefore, this paper presents the concept and design of a low cost, passive, and wireless temperature sensor that can withstand high temperature and harsh environments. The temperature sensor was designed following the principle of metamaterials by utilizing closed ring resonators in a dielectric ceramic matrix. The proposed wireless, passive temperature sensor behaves like an

Nanowire modified carbon fibers for enhanced electrical energy storage

LC

Feasibility study of thermal energy harvesting using lead free pyroelectrics

circuit, which has a temperature-dependent resonance frequency. Full-wave electromagnetic solver Ansys Ansoft HFSS was used to validate the model and evaluate the effect of different geometry and combination of split ring resonator structures on the sensitivity and electrical sizes of the proposed sensor. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the sensor and provide guidance for future fabrication and testing.

Pyroelectric energy harvesting with a high Curie temperature material LiNbO3

The study of electrochemical super-capacitors has become one of the most attractive topics in both academia and industry as energy storage devices because of their high power density, long life cycles, and high charge/discharge efficiency. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the development of multifunctional structural energy storage devices such as structural super-capacitors for applications in aerospace, automobiles, and portable electronics. These multifunctional structural super-capacitors provide structures combining energy storage and load bearing functionalities, leading to material systems with reduced volume and/or weight. Due to their superior materials properties, carbon fiber composites have been widely used in structural applications for aerospace and automotive industries. Besides, carbon fiber has good electrical conductivity which will provide lower equivalent series resistance; therefore, it can be an excellent candidate for structural energy storage applications. Hence, this paper is focused on performing a pilot study for using nanowire/carbon fiber hybrids as building materials for structural energy storage materials; aiming at enhancing the charge/discharge rate and energy density. This hybrid material combines the high specific surface area of carbon fiber and pseudo-capacitive effect of metal oxide nanowires, which were grown hydrothermally in an aligned fashion on carbon fibers. The aligned nanowire array could provide a higher specific surface area that leads to high electrode-electrolyte contact area thus fast ion diffusion rates. Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction measurements are used for the initial characterization of this nanowire/carbon fiber hybrid material system. Electrochemical testing is performed using a potentio-galvanostat. The results show that gold sputtered nanowire carbon fiber hybrid provides 65.9% higher energy density than bare carbon fiber cloth as super-capacitor.

Development of metamaterial based low cost passive wireless temperature sensor

Energy harvesting has significant potential for applications in energizing wireless sensors and charging energy storage devices. To date, one of the most widely investigated materials for mechanical and thermal energy harvesting is lead zirconate titanate (PZT). However, lead has detrimental effects on the environment and on health. Hence, alternative materials are required for this purpose. In this paper, a lead free material, lithium niobate (LNB) is investigated as a potential material for pyroelectric energy harvesting. Although its theoretical pyroelectric properties are lower compared to PZT, it has better properties than other lead free alternatives such as ZnO. In addition, LNB has a high Curie temperature of about 1142 °C, which makes it applicable for high temperature energy harvesting, where other pyroelectric ceramics are not suitable. Herein, an energy harvesting and storage system composed of a single crystal LNB and a porous carbon-based super-capacitor was investigated. It is found that with controlled heating and cooling, a single wafer of LNB (75 mm diameter and 0.5 mm thickness) could generate 437.72 nW cm–3 of power and it could be used to charge a super-capacitor with a charging rate of 2.63 mV (h cm3)–1.

Multifunctional composites for energy storage

Energy harvesting has been gaining significant interest as a potential solution for energizing next generation sensor and energy storage devices. The most widely investigated material for piezoelectric and pyro-electric energy harvesting to date is PZT (Lead Zirconate Titanate), owing to its good piezoelectric and pyro-electric properties. However, Lead is detrimental to human health and to the environment. Hence, alternative materials are required to be investigated for this purpose. In this paper, a lead free material Lithium Niobate (LNB) is reported as a potential material for pyro-electric energy harvesting. Although, it has lower pyro-electric properties than PZT, it has better properties than other lead free alternatives of PZT such as ZnO. In addition, LNB has a high curie point of 1142 °C, which makes it suitable for high temperature environment where other pyro-electric materials are not suitable. Therefore, a single crystal LNB has been investigated as a source of energy harvesting under alternative heating and cooling environment. A commercial 0.2 F super-capacitor was used as the energy storage device.

Development of passive wireless temperature sensors using metamaterials

Wireless passive temperature sensors are gaining increasing attention due to the ever-growing need of precise monitoring of temperature in high temperature energy conversion systems such as gas turbines and coal-based power plants. Unfortunately, the harsh environment such as high temperature and corrosive atmosphere present in these systems limits current solutions. In order to alleviate these issues, this paper presents the design, simulation, and manufacturing process of a low cost, passive, and wireless temperature sensor that can withstand high temperature and harsh environment. The temperature sensor was designed following the principle of metamaterials by utilizing Closed Ring Resonators (CRR) embedded in a dielectric matrix. The proposed wireless, passive temperature sensor behaves like an LC circuit that has a resonance frequency that depends on temperature. A full wave electromagnetic solver Ansys Ansoft HFSS was used to perform simulations to determine the optimum dimensions and geometry of the sensor unit. The sensor unit was prepared by conventional powder-binder compression method. Commercially available metal washers were used as CRR structures and Barium Titanate (BTO) was used as the dielectric materials. Response of the fabricated sensor at room temperature was analyzed using a pair of horn antenna connected with a network analyzer.

Fabrication of barium titanate by binder jetting additive manufacturing technology

Electrochemical super-capacitors have become one of the most important topics in both academia and industry as novel energy storage devices because of their high power density, long life cycles, and high charge/discharge efficiency. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the development of multifunctional structural energy storage devices such as structural super-capacitors for applications in aerospace, automobiles and portable electronics. These multifunctional structural super-capacitors provide lighter structures combining energy storage and load bearing functionalities. Due to their superior materials properties, carbon fiber composites have been widely used in structural applications for aerospace and automotive industries. Besides, carbon fiber has good electrical conductivity which will provide lower equivalent series resistance; therefore, it can be an excellent candidate for structural energy storage applications. Hence, this paper is focused on performing a pilot study for using nanowire/carbon fiber hybrids as building materials for structural energy storage materials; aiming at enhancing the charge/discharge rate and energy density. This hybrid material combines the high specific surface area of carbon fiber and pseudo-capacitive effect of metal oxide nanowires which were grown hydrothermally in an aligned fashion on carbon fibers. The aligned nanowire array could provide a higher specific surface area that leads to high electrode-electrolyte contact area and fast ion diffusion rates. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and XRay Diffraction (XRD) measurements were used for the initial characterization of this nanowire/carbon fiber hybrid material system. Electrochemical testing has been performed using a potentio-galvanostat. The results show that gold sputtered nanowire hybrid carbon fiber provides 65.9% better performance than bare carbon fiber cloth as super-capacitor.

Temperature influence on dielectric energy storage of nanocomposites

Wireless passive temperature sensors have been receiving increasing attention due to the ever-growing need of higher energy efficiency and precise monitoring of temperatures in high temperature energy conversion systems such as gas turbines and coal-based power plants. Unfortunately, the harsh environment such as high temperature and corrosive atmosphere present in these systems has significantly limited the reliability and increased the cost of current solutions. Therefore, this paper presents the concept and design of a low cost, passive, and wireless temperature sensor that can withstand high temperature and harsh environment. The temperature sensor was designed following the principle of metamaterials by utilizing Closed Ring Resonators (CRR) in a dielectric matrix. The proposed wireless, passive temperature sensor behaves like an LC circuit, which has a resonance frequency that is temperature dependent. A full wave electromagnetic solver Ansys Ansoft HFSS was used to validate the model and to evaluate the effect of different geometry and combination of SRR structures on the resonance frequency and sensitivity of the proposed sensor. Conventional compression method using a die-punch assembly was used to fabricate the sensors. To simplify the sensor design, commercially available metal washers were used as CRR structures. Barium Titanate (BTO) was used as dielectric materials. Free space testing was done using a pair of horn antenna connected with a network analyzer to analyze the sensor response at room temperature.