piezoelectricity? … what is that? … too many syllables!

no, wait! read on!! … physics is really cool! …

understanding the physics of our world and of our surrounding galaxy and Universe is an intensely fascinating venture! … the principles of physics, chemistry, math, and biology that govern and effect our existence are literally incredible …

it’s exciting to see how persistent humans are in exploring realms of the unknown … we really are innately curious creatures, and that makes life a lot of fun! … for millenia humans have probed and prodded physical and metaphysical realms to search for the answers to their incessant, insatiable questions … this is a good thing because we’ve learned so much … the power of our knowledge, however, must be respected deeply because knowledge can be used destructively or constructively …

in the mid- to late-19th century, several scientists discovered some materials generate an electrical potential when they are mechanically stressed (e.g., squeezed, compressed, etc.) … dubbed piezomorphic (a word derived from Greek: piezo = squeeze or press + morh = form) substances, people soon realized that there was a great potential (no pun intended!) for using these materials to generate different forms of energy ^[1] …

piezomorphic materials include:

spider silk has piezomorphic properties

* crystal minerals such as quartz, berlinite, topaz, tourmalines, and potassium sodium tartrate salt;

* cane sugar;

* silk, including spider silk;

* wood

* some ceramics;

* animal tissues including bone (specifically, the collagen within the bone matrix), tendon, enamel, and dentin (the implications of this last point — that we generate electrical potential beyond the fundamental energies emitted by our ever-vibrating cells — are *very* exciting to me!);

* some man-made materials …

i think continued work in this field will yield the discovery of piezoelectric properties in many more substances …

so what are the implications of this neat discovery?

piezoelectricity ^[2] = energy generated from piezomorphic materials … piezomorphic substances generate electrical potential through a process known as transduction ^[3] … transduction is essentially the conversion of energy from 1 form into another … the principle of transduction holds a lot of promise for harnessing extant and natural energy-producing processes into forms of energy humans can use to satisfy their needs …

the capture and usage of energy generated from daily, mundane, and ubiquitous processes can arguably be the cleanest form of energy generation (technically, this process is actually a form of energy recycling) …

energy recycling?! excellent!

recycling energy

indeed! instead of letting that unused energy go to ‘waste’ (e.g., dissipation as heat), brilliant forms of technology capture and use it …

piezoelectricity has been exploited ever since its discovery … the myriad of applications include car cigarette lighters, quartz watches, medical ultrasound equipment, loudspeakers … you get the picture …

however, people think big … and using piezoelectricity for large-scale energy production is the most recent trend …

in a previous post ^[4], i briefly mentioned piezoelectric energy generation … i provided a link to a study where scientists investigated capturing biomechanical (i.e., movement in living organisms) energy from human finger movements and from hamsters running in a wheel … so in this case, the source of piezoelectricity would be the movement of a living being … every form of movement — walking, breathing, jumping, heartbeats, circulation — releases energy …

scientists and engineers are beginning to use this technology in larger, real-world applications to alleviate the environmental strain from conventional forms of energy generation (e.g., coal, petroleum, and natural gas) …

examples of piezoelectricity in use today …

tokyo train station

* east japan railway company ^[5] (jr east) has installed piezoelectric materials in the floor of their tokyo station ^[6] to capture the energy generated from people walking on this surface …

* innowattech in israel ^[7] installed piezoelectric crystals in the asphalt of roads and highways to harness the energy generated from moving cars …

harnessing energy from vehicle traffic

* in glouchester, UK a Sainsbury’s supermarket ^[8] installed piezomorphic crystals in the parking lot to harness the energy of moving cars and supermarket carts …

* georgia institute of technology ^[9] developed a fabric that can be used to make clothing and generate electrical power from the movement of the person wearing it or other mechanical friction applied to it (e.g., rubbing) …

harnessing the energy from electrified dancers

* watt ^[10] dance club in rotterdam, netherlands powers its dance floor lights with electricity generated from people dancing on the floor … other clubs in the UK and USA have followed suit …

future potential …

* engineers are working toward designing devices that power themselves ^[11] (including self-powering nanotechnology ^[12] … for more on this, also look into flexoelectricity ^[13]) or that generate power that can then be stored for later use (e.g., in batteries) … this includes developing already existing prototypes of devices that capture the energy of humans walking (this also includes exploiting a principle known as the faraday effect ^[14]) …

we most likely won’t ever be able to harvest ^[15] and use all of the energy that is generated from natural or inevitable processes …

however, this is truly a promising field and i think the public should demand that their governments invest in exploring and developing this technology in their country … instead of subsidizing coal plants, nuclear power, or oil companies, i think governments need to focus their attention and investments into forms of energy production that have few detrimental consequences to life on Earth …