High-performance low-velocity turbulent flow piezoelectric energy harvester using porous Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) ceramics

Zihe Li; James Roscow; Hamideh Khanbareh; Ruxue Yang,; Zheng-Yang Huo; Geoff Haswell; Min Pan; John Taylor; Chris Bowen

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2025.113881

High-performance low-velocity turbulent flow piezoelectric energy harvester using porous Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) ceramics

Zihe Li
, James Roscow
, Hamideh Khanbareh
, Ruxue Yang,
, Zheng-Yang Huo
, Geoff Haswell
, Min Pan
, John Taylor
, Chris Bowen

Imperial College London

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (SciVal)

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Abstract

Piezoelectric energy harvesting of water flow offers a promising approach for directly powering Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors used in water environment monitoring. However, its voltage and power outputs remain limited under practical flow conditions, especially in turbulent and low-velocity flows. To address this challenge, this work presents the first demonstration of a water flow energy harvester integrated with d33-mode and porosity-engineered lead-free Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) piezoelectric ceramics. The performance of the harvester was experimentally evaluated in turbulent water flow at a low velocity of 0.1 m/s. During a capacitor charging test, the porous BCZT harvester achieved a 2.3-times increase in the saturated charging voltage (Vcharge) and a 5.1-fold increase in the charging power compared to the dense BCZT harvester. This work fills the knowledge gap related to piezoelectric harvesters in low-velocity turbulent flow, demonstrating the critical role of material design in water flow energy harvesting, and promoting the development of self-powered water monitoring technologies.

Original language	English
Article number	113881
Journal	iScience
Volume	28
Issue number	12
Early online date	27 Oct 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.113881
Publication status	Published - 19 Dec 2025

Data Availability Statement

Data reported in this paper will be shared by the lead contact upon
request. This paper does not report original code.

Funding

Li acknowledges support from the NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership [NE/S007504/1] and EMD Electro-Mechanical Developments Ltd. Z.H. thanks to the support from the UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee funding of Marie Sktodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (grant EP/X022730/1). C.B. acknowledges support by the UKRI Frontier Research Guarantee on “Processing of Smart Porous Electro-Ceramic Transducers ProSPECT”, project no. EP/X023265/1. J.R. acknowledges support from the EPSRC (EP/V011332/1). For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license [where permitted by UKRI, “Open Government Licence” or ‘Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC-BY-ND) license may be stated instead] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.

Funders	Funder number
EMD Electro-Mechanical Developments Ltd
Natural Environment Research Council	NE/S007504/1
UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee funding of Marie Sktodowska-Curie Actions	EP/X022730/1
UK Research and Innovation	EP/X023265/1
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council	EP/V011332/1

Keywords

applied sciences
energy storage
materials science

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

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PIIS258900422502142XFinal published version, 12.2 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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title = "High-performance low-velocity turbulent flow piezoelectric energy harvester using porous Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) ceramics",

abstract = "Piezoelectric energy harvesting of water flow offers a promising approach for directly powering Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors used in water environment monitoring. However, its voltage and power outputs remain limited under practical flow conditions, especially in turbulent and low-velocity flows. To address this challenge, this work presents the first demonstration of a water flow energy harvester integrated with d33-mode and porosity-engineered lead-free Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) piezoelectric ceramics. The performance of the harvester was experimentally evaluated in turbulent water flow at a low velocity of 0.1 m/s. During a capacitor charging test, the porous BCZT harvester achieved a 2.3-times increase in the saturated charging voltage (Vcharge) and a 5.1-fold increase in the charging power compared to the dense BCZT harvester. This work fills the knowledge gap related to piezoelectric harvesters in low-velocity turbulent flow, demonstrating the critical role of material design in water flow energy harvesting, and promoting the development of self-powered water monitoring technologies.",

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AU - Khanbareh, Hamideh

AU - Yang,, Ruxue

AU - Huo, Zheng-Yang

AU - Haswell, Geoff

AU - Pan, Min

AU - Taylor, John

AU - Bowen, Chris

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N2 - Piezoelectric energy harvesting of water flow offers a promising approach for directly powering Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors used in water environment monitoring. However, its voltage and power outputs remain limited under practical flow conditions, especially in turbulent and low-velocity flows. To address this challenge, this work presents the first demonstration of a water flow energy harvester integrated with d33-mode and porosity-engineered lead-free Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) piezoelectric ceramics. The performance of the harvester was experimentally evaluated in turbulent water flow at a low velocity of 0.1 m/s. During a capacitor charging test, the porous BCZT harvester achieved a 2.3-times increase in the saturated charging voltage (Vcharge) and a 5.1-fold increase in the charging power compared to the dense BCZT harvester. This work fills the knowledge gap related to piezoelectric harvesters in low-velocity turbulent flow, demonstrating the critical role of material design in water flow energy harvesting, and promoting the development of self-powered water monitoring technologies.

AB - Piezoelectric energy harvesting of water flow offers a promising approach for directly powering Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors used in water environment monitoring. However, its voltage and power outputs remain limited under practical flow conditions, especially in turbulent and low-velocity flows. To address this challenge, this work presents the first demonstration of a water flow energy harvester integrated with d33-mode and porosity-engineered lead-free Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) piezoelectric ceramics. The performance of the harvester was experimentally evaluated in turbulent water flow at a low velocity of 0.1 m/s. During a capacitor charging test, the porous BCZT harvester achieved a 2.3-times increase in the saturated charging voltage (Vcharge) and a 5.1-fold increase in the charging power compared to the dense BCZT harvester. This work fills the knowledge gap related to piezoelectric harvesters in low-velocity turbulent flow, demonstrating the critical role of material design in water flow energy harvesting, and promoting the development of self-powered water monitoring technologies.

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High-performance low-velocity turbulent flow piezoelectric energy harvester using porous Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) ceramics

Abstract

Data Availability Statement

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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