Characterization of the harvesting capabilities of an ionic polymer metal composite device

Harvesting systems capable of transforming dusty environmental energy into electrical energy have aroused considerable interest in the last two decades. Several research works have focused on the transformation of mechanical environmental vibrations into electrical energy. Most of the research activity refers to classic piezoelectric ceramic materials, but more recently piezoelectric polymer materials have been considered. In this paper, a novel point of view regarding harvesting systems is proposed: using ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs) as generating materials.