Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: a Systematic Review

of Reviews
arXiv:2101.09312v1 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci] 22 Jan 2021

Jafar Ghazanfarian∗, Mohammad Mostafa Mohammadi

Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Zanjan, P.O.
Box 45195-313, Zanjan, Iran.

Abstract
In the last decade, an explosive attention has been paid to piezoelectric har-
vesters due to their flexility in design and increasing need to small-scale
energy generation. As a result, many review papers have been presented by
many researchers to cover different aspects of piezo-based energy harvesting,
including piezomaterials, modeling approaches, and design points in various
applications. Most of such papers tried to shed light on recent progresses in
related interdisciplinary fields, and to pave the road for future prospects of
development of this technology. However, several parts of the field have been
missed in existing review papers, and many similar overlaps or even some
contradictions exist. In the present review of review article, all recommen-
dations for future research directions suggested by the review papers have
been systematically summed up nuder one umbrella. At the final section,
our recommendations for missing review papers and concluding remarks on
outlooks and possible research topics have been presented.

Highlights
• All review papers in the field of piezo-based energy harvesting are re-
viewed.

• A comparative overview of reviews in the map of piezo-energy harvest-

ing is presented.

∗
Corresponding author, Tel.: +98(241) 3305 4142. All authors contributed equally to
this work.
Email address: j.ghazanfarian@znu.ac.ir (Jafar Ghazanfarian)

Preprint submitted to Elsevier January 26, 2021

 • An extensive description of research lines for future research is provided.

• Statistics of publications and funding organizations are presented.

Keywords
Energy harvesting; piezoelectric; energy conversion; renewable energies;
micro-electro-mechanical systems

2
Contents

1 Introduction 3

2 Reviews with non-focused topics 6

3 Design and fabrication 10

3.1 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2 Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.3 MEMS/NEMS-based devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4 Modeling approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4 Application 32
4.1 Vibration sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.2 Biological sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.3 Fluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.4 Ambient waste energy sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

5 Challenges and the roadmap for future research 47

1. Introduction
Due to recent developments of portable and wearable electronics, wire-
less electronic systems, implantable medical devices, energy-autonomous sys-
tems, monitoring systems, and MEMS/NEMS-based devices, the procedure
of generation of a small-scale amount of energy may lead to a revolution in
development of ultra-low-power technologies. Figure 1 demonstrates com-
parison of output power versus power density generated by the piezoelectric
system and some other direct energy conversion techniques [1]. It can be
concluded from the figure that among various types of energy harvesting,
the piezomaterials are the most common and general candidate of energy
harvesting with a wide range of output voltage.
On the other hand, advantages of piezoelectric harnessing include simple
structure without several additional components, no need to moving parts
or mechanical constraints, environment friendliness and being ecologically
safe, portability, coupled operation with other renewable energies, no need
to an external voltage source, compatibility with MEMS, easy fabrication
with microelectronic devices, high output voltage, cost effectiveness, wide
frequency range, scalibility, and an AC-type output. Hence, piezomaterials

3
Figure 1: Comparison of power density as a function of output voltage difference for
different energy harvesting systems [1].

are an excellent candidate to replace batteries with short lifespan for powering
macro to nanoscale electronic devices. Piezomaterials can extract power
directly from structural vibrations or any other environmental waste energy
source in biomedical systems, nano-devices, healthcare and medicine, remote
and hostile applications, and they can be used as as transducers, actuators,
and surface acoustic wave devices.
Some disadvantages of piezo-harvesters are poor coupling of thin films,
high output impedance, producing relatively high output voltages at low elec-
trical current, discontinuous nature of energy harvesting, brittleness, flexible
PVDF with low coupling, and charge leakage.
The number of review papers on piezoelectric energy harvesting has been
extensively increased in the recent decade. Due to the tremendous number
of published review papers in this field, finding an appropriate review paper
itself turns out to be a challenge. On the other hand ,there are overlaps,
similarities, missing parts, and sometimes contradictions between different
reviews in the map, which may lead to the confusion of readers. Therefore,
the main motivation of the present paper was to present a systematic review
of the review papers about the piezoelectric harvesters. We try to summarize
all deficits, advantages, and missing parts of the existing review papers on

4
piezo-energy harvesting systems.
An extensive search among electronic sources identified about 90 review
papers in diverse applications related to the piezoelectric energy harvesting.
As will be demonstrated later, such papers present many different conclud-
ing remarks corresponding to area of usage, materials, design approaches,
and mathematical models. We tried to perform a very detailed searching
procedure with too many keywords and by several search engines to cover
all published review papers or the review papers in which ”piezo” was not
mentioned directly in the title.
Statistics of publications during two recent decades excluding conference
papers and conference reviews with the keyword ”piezo AND energy harvest-
ing” extracted from SCOPUS are shown in Fig. 2. Results from SCOPUS in-
cluded overall number of 4435 documents, containing 874 open access papers,
130 book chapters, and 36 books. The National Natural Science Foundation
of China, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and
the National Research Foundation of Korea were the most frequent funding
sponsors. Most common subject areas were engineering, material sciences,
physics and astronomy, chemistry, and energy. An extrapolation shown in
the figure anticipates publications of a huge number of articles (about 5000
articles a year) during the coming decade.
Due to interdisciplinary nature of piezoelectric energy harvesting, pre-
diction of behavior of the piezo-generators are related to different thermo-
electro-mechanical sciences as well as material engineering. We have illus-
trated a systematic map of various aspects of piezo-energy harvesting and
design in Fig. 3. Different branches of related sciences and applications in-
clude fabrication methods, hybrid systems, performance evaluation, size, us-
age methods, configurations, modeling aspects, economical points, energy
sources, optimization, design of an electric interface, and selection of a proper
material. All sub-branches in the figure will be discussed in subsections of
the present paper. In all sections, the review articles have been presented in
the order of the year of publication. This is so helpful to understand the rev-
olutionary progressing level of the energy harvesting during the last decades.
The outline of the paper is as follows. At the first section, the focus is on the
reviews about the design process, structures, the material considerations, size
effects, and the mathematical modeling challenges. At the second part of the
article, the main theme of the review will be evaluating applications of the
piezo-harvesters. The most common applications include vibrational energy
sources, fluid-based harvesters, scavenging energy from ambient waste ener-

5
 5000

4000

Number of publications
3000

2000

1000

0
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030
Year

Figure 2: Overall history and future estimation of publications on piezoelectric energy

harvesting.

gies, and energy harnessing in biological applications. In the last section, a

summary of future challenges, research directions, and missing review topics
will be presented.

2. Reviews with non-focused topics

There is a few number of general review articles without having a specific
focal point. Here, we are to investigate some general points presented by such
review papers. Mateu and Moll [2] presented an overview of several meth-
ods to design an energy harvesting device depending on the type of energy
available for microelectronics. They summarized the power consumption of
the microelectronic devices and explained the working principals of piezoelec-
tric, electrostatic, magnetic induction, and electromagnetic radiation-based
generators. They mentioned that the piezoelectric generators already have
most of advantages of inductive and electrostatic generators. Also, they have
a robust structure, but due to some difficulties in micro-machining process
of piezoelectric materials, miniaturization of the piezoelectric harvesters is
somehow more difficult.

6
 7

Figure 3: Strategic map of piezoelectric energy harvesting design aspects, modeling issues,
and applications.
 Aton and Sodano [3] reviewed some general topics published between
2003 to 2006, discussing the efficiency improvement, configurations, circuitry
and method of power storage, implantable and wearable power supplies, har-
vesting from the ambient fluid flows, the micro-electro-mechanical systems,
and the self-powered sensors. There is no specific classifications of articles in
this review. They described that the future directions are the development
of a complete self-powered device, which includes power harvester, storage,
and application circuitry combined. Also, they declared that enhancement
of energy generation and storage methods along with decreasing the power
requirements of electronic devices may be a prime target at future.
Khaligh et al. [4] addressed the piezoelectric generators suitable for human-
powered and vibration-based devices as well as the electromagnetic genera-
tors, including resonant, rotational, and hybrid devices. A brief information
has been presented about the hybrid generators provided by an imbalanced
rotor, which needs more in-deep investigations in future reviews. They con-
cluded that the output voltage of piezoelectric systems is too high and the
output current is too low. In contrary, the electromagnetic generators can
generate high output currents, but the voltage is lower than needed.
Sun et al. [5] made a review on applications of piezoelectric harvesters.
However, they put everything in a nutshell. Obviously, such topics need more
close considerations. Studying an autonomous system of piezoelectric energy
harvesting from the ambient with higher performance, designing controllable
vibrator, adjustable tuning circuit, and larger energy transforming efficiency
are their suggestions as future plans. Taware and Deshmukh [6] briefly re-
viewed a number of literature in the field of piezoelectric energy harvesting.
They mentioned advantages and disadvantages of some of piezoelectric mate-
rials. They explained cantilever based piezoelectric energy harvesters, their
related design points and mathematical model.
Calio et al. [7] reviewed the material properties of 19 types of piezo-
materials, the piezo-harvesters operating modes, the resonant/non-resonant
operations, the optimal shape of the beam, the frequency tuning, the ro-
tational device configurations, the power density and bandwidth, and the
conditioning circuitry. They tried to make a selection guide between piezo-
electric materials based on the power output and operating modes. They
concluded that the resonant d33 cantilever beam needs the optimization and
the d15 harvester is still too complex to be fabricated but with great poten-
tial. This paper is a good suggestion for beginners to start a research in the
field of piezoelectric energy harvesting.

8
 Batra et al. [8] reviewed mathematical modeling and constitutive equa-
tions for piezomaterials, the lumped parameter model, mechanisms of piezo-
electric energy conversion, and operating principles of the piezoelectric energy
harvesters. They reported the dielectric, the piezoelectric, the mechanical,
and the pyroelectric properties of some of piezo-materials. Applications of
piezo-harvesting from jaw, shoe, wind, knee, leg, railways, and road move-
ments have been explained. A 4-page review paper exist [9], which mainly
has focused on some points about the history of piezoelectric effect, piezo-
materials, and applications like harvesting from foot steps and roads.
Safaei et al. [10] made a comprehensive review in the field of piezoelec-
tric energy harvesters as an update of their previous review [3], to account
for more recent papers published between 2008-2018. Their literature re-
view included the lead-free piezomaterials, the piezoelectric single crystals,
the high-temperature piezoelectrics, the piezoelectric nanocomposites, 0-3
composites, piezoelectric foams, nonlinear and broadband transducers, and
micro-electro-mechanical transducers. They also discussed several types of
piezoelectric transducers, the mathematical modelings, energy conditioning
circuitry, and applications such as fluids, windmill-style harvesters, flutter-
style harvesters, from human body, wearable devices, implantable devices,
animal-based systems, infrastructure, vehicles, and multifunctional/multi-
source energy harvesting. Several useful illustration have been presented in
the paper, which sums up different technologies in a unified framework. How-
ever, their brief recommendations for future horizons in the field is just lim-
ited to fabrication of piezoelectric nanofibers, piezoelectric thin films, print-
able piezoelectric materials, exploiting internal resonance of structures, and
development of metamaterials and metastructures.
Sharma and Baredar [11] analyzed the current methods to harvest en-
ergy from vibration using a piezoelectric setup in low-range frequency zone,
piezoelectric material properties, and the modeling and experimental inves-
tigations. They also presented shortcomings of the piezoelectric harvesters
with respect to solar, wind and biomass energy sources. They indicate that
the disadvantages of the piezo-harvesters are depolarization, sudden break-
ing of piezo layer due to high brittleness and poor coupling coefficient, poor
adhesive properties of PVDF material, and lower electromagnetic coupling
coefficient of PZT. They discussed that the design of high-efficiency energy
harvesters, invention of new energy harvesting designs by exploring non-
linear benefits, and design of portable compact-size systems with integrated
functions are great forthcoming challenges.

9
 In summary, although most of the aforementioned general review papers
have almost similar titles, but their scientific depth and the extent of reviewed
items are clearly different. For example, some of these review papers are
in fact an introduction for the piezoelectric energy harvesting concept, the
working principles and applications. Some papers like Ref. [7] has focused
on design strategies of the piezoelectric energy harvesters, and is a try to
present a guide for the selection of piezoelectric materials for harvesters.
There are a few review papers (like the one written by Safaei et al. [10])
which the titles are a real representative of the context. Moreover, almost all
the aforementioned reviews suffer from weak classifications stemming from
generality of their topic of intersect.

3. Design and fabrication

3.1. Materials
The choice of suitable piezoelectric material is a critical step in designing
energy harvesters [12]. Thus, lots of the review papers in the field of energy
harvesters less or more have addressed the piezoelectric materials. Different
performance metrics have been used for comparing piezoelectric materials on
diverse applications. In actuating and sensing applications, the piezoelectric
strain and piezoelectric voltage constants are appropriate criteria. However,
for energy harvesting, the output voltage, the power density, costs, opera-
tional bandwidth, and functionality at the working situation are the most
important factors.
Bedekar et al. [13] presented a comparison between properties of different
single-crystal piezomaterials in longitudinal mode operating at high tem-
peratures. They found that the power density of soft PZT is about three
orders of magnitude higher than that of the high-temperature crystals at
the room temperature. Y Ca4 O(BO3)3 and La3 Ga5 SiO14 crystals annealed
at 600 retrogrades promise magnitude of power similar to the power at the
room temperature.
Lefeuvre et al. [14] reported the coupling coefficient and the mechanical
quality factor of a number of piezo-materials and explained their advantages
and disadvantages. The electrical circuits with one- to three-stage interfaces
designed for optimizing the electrical power flow have been compared for
novel techniques. They presented the figure of merit for energy conversion
as the product of the squared coupling coefficient and the mechanical quality
factor. They concluded that the soft ceramics have high coupling coefficients

10
and moderate mechanical quality factors. The hard ceramics have lower cou-
pling coefficients and higher mechanical quality factors. Hence, the soft and
hard ceramics have roughly the same figure of merit. Although the efficiency
is one of the main topics of the review, indication of a clear relationship
between efficiency evaluation and the reported information is missing.
Mukherjee and Datta [15] provided a comparative study of properties of
a few number of piezoelectric materials, which are related to energy har-
vesting from cantilever-based vibrational motion. Six piezoelectric ceramics
have bee considered. The coupling factor, the quality factor, the relative di-
electric constant, and the Young’s modulus were defined as the performance
Indicators of the piezoelectric materials. They concluded that EC-97 EC-97
lead titanate generates more power at optimal resistance and at resonant
frequency compared to the other materials.
Safaei et al. reviewed piezoelectric ceramics like soft and hard PZTs,
piezoelectric polymers including PVDF, piezoelectric single crystals, lead-free
piezoelectrics, high temperature piezoelectrics, piezoelectric nanocomposites,
and also piezoelectric foams. For some of these materials they reported the
coupling coefficient, and the maximum output voltage of the material without
describing the geometry of the piezoelectric harvester. Brittleness of PZTs
and existence of health risks in PZT ceramics due to the toxicity of lead are
the most important challenges of using PZTs, which motivates the develop-
ment of lead-free flexible and high-performance piezoelectric materials. They
concluded that the need for enhancement of electro, mechanical, thermal, and
biocompatible properties has led to the introduction of new piezoelectric ma-
terials including new lead-free piezoelectrics, high-temperature piezoelectrics,
piezoelectret foams, and piezoelectric nanocomposites.
A detailed overview of the piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials in-
cluding inorganic and compliant piezoelectric materials was given by Bowen
et al. [16]. They mentioned some points about high-temperature harvesting
related to the Curie temperature, light harvesting into chemical or electri-
cal energy, and optimization algorithms. Their investigation contains pa-
rameters like pyroelectric coefficient (harvesting from temperature fluctua-
tions), the electro-mechanical coupling, the mechanical quality factor, the
constant-strain relative permittivity, the constant-stress relative permittiv-
ity, the piezoelectric coefficient, and the elastic constant. For high-strain
applications, they suggested polymeric or composite-based systems. sug-
gested future directions are understating and development of new materials
and gaining strong scientific underpinning of the technology and reliable mea-

11
surements.
Applications of artificial metamaterials in energy harvesting have been
investigated by Chen et al. [17]. Such artificial materials exhibit exotic and
unique properties like negative stiffness, mass, the Poisson’s ratio, and the re-
fractive index, which cannot be achieved by natural materials. They declared
that the wide bandwidth, the frequency self-adaptation, the development of
active, controllable, non-linear metamaterials, and obtaining high efficiency
are future research hot-spots in the field. They believe that metamaterials
will bring a revolution on conventional energy harvesting approaches.
Yuan et al. [18] introduced the dielectric electroactive polymers as promis-
ing replacements for conventional piezoelectric materials. Electroactive poly-
mers are lightweight, flexible, ductile, low-cost, with high strength-to-weight
ratio, low mechanical impedance, and can endure large strains. The dielec-
tric polymers need high voltage to realize energy cycles, which may lead to
the breakdown of the device. Piezoelectric materials are employed in energy
harvesters because of their compact configuration and compatibility. How-
ever, these materials have inherent limitations including aging, depolariza-
tion, and brittleness. In comparison, electrostrictive polymers are promising
candidates for replacing piezoelectric materials in vibration energy harvest-
ing cases. The challenge in design of electroactive polymer energy harvesters
is to develop systems capable of ensuring a constant initial voltage on the
polymer at small cost.
Narita and Fox [19] reviewed three categories of energy harvesting piezo-
electric ceramics/polymers, magnetostrictive alloys, and magnetoelectric mul-
tiferroic composites. Their review includes describing the properties of PZT,
PVDF, and ZnO and also they remarked some advantages and disadvan-
tages of traditional piezoelectric ceramics, piezoelectric polymers and com-
posites. They focused on the characterization, fabrication, modeling, sim-
ulation, durability and reliability of piezo-devices. Based on their analysis,
the future directions include the device size reduction to make them suitable
for nanotechnology, optimization, and developing accurate multi-scale com-
putational methods to link atomic, domain, grain, and macroscale behaviors.
Investigation of temperature-dependence of properties, development of mate-
rials and structures capable of withstanding prolonged cyclic loading, dura-
tion of electro-magneto-mechanical properties, and fracture/fatigue studies
are other recommendations for future research.
Liu et al. [20] discussed various types of harvester configurations, piezo-
electric materials, fabrication techniques, performance enhancement, hybrid

12
energy harvesting, and limited applications of the piezoelectric setups. Their
review on piezoelectric materials includes explaining the main mechanical
properties and power output of one- and two-dimensional nonostructured
materials, piezoelectric ceramics and polymers along with the piezoelec-
tric bio-materials. They advised that harvesting the low-frequency high-
amplitude ocean wave energy using a piezoelectric system, utilization of in-
organic/organic, bio piezomaterials, enhancing the low output performance
and narrow bandwidth still need more close attention. They also mentioned
some points on application of piezomaterials in internet of things. They
concluded that with the current rapid development of the internet of things
(IoTs), the energy harvesting will become an emerging technology for the
development of smart cities, smart homes, smart health, smart agriculture,
intelligent transportation, industry, security, and marine.
Mishara et al. [21] focused on the basic theory and principles behind the
piezoelectric energy harvesting devices, comparison of piezo-ceramics and
piezo-polymers, structural configurations and fabrication. Some types of
piezoelectric polymers such as polyvinylidene fluoride, polylactic acid, cel-
lulose, polyamides, polyurea, polyurethanes, and their composites were ex-
tensively addressed. They also presented a review of performance of the
uni-morph/bi-morph cantilever beam, the circular diaphragm, the cymbal
transducer, and the stacked structures. They announced that the design
and fabrication of the device, the compatibility with advanced technologies,
long durability by meeting performance requirements need to be considered
more deeply. It is reported that the piezoelectric market is going to take
28.8% of the energy harvesting market by reaching over 800 million dollars
experiencing a sharp trend.
Priya et al. [22] summarized materials and resonator structures as well
as the key metrics like the power density and the bandwidth of structures
at low frequency input in microscale piezoelectric energy harvesting. They
also gave an overall outlook of the fabrication methods, including the par-
ticle/granule spray deposition techniques, aerosol-deposition (AD), granule
spray in vacuum and circuits with the aim of minimal energy dissipation.
Achieving higher power density and wider bandwidth of resonance are the
two biggest challenges currently facing the technology of MEMS based en-
ergy harvesters. They expect that in future, a coin size harvester will deliver
about 100µ W continuous power below 100 Hz at less than 0.5 g vibration
and at a reasonable cost. In this paper the main focus is on the MEMS-based
piezoelectric energy harvesters and their related design aspects, however the

13
title refers to more general aspects.
Gosavi et al. [12] addressed various materials that are in use for energy
harvesting at the micro and nanoscales. They defined a systematic roadmap
to select the piezoelectric materials for employing in micro and nanoscale
energy harvesters. They pointed out that the ZnO thin film is the most
widely used structure in micro and nanoscale harvesters, and can be eas-
ily synthesized in the required sizes, shapes and are very economical to be
fabricated.
Zaarour et al. [23] summarized the energy harvesting technologies devel-
oped based on piezoelectric polymeric fibers, inorganic piezoelectric fibers,
and inorganic nanowire. The paper contains a complete review of piezo-
electric fibers with respect to the peak voltage, the peak current, the active
area, and their advantages and disadvantages. Standardizing the perfor-
mance of the piezo-nanogenerator, developing effective packaging technol-
ogy, packaging of nano-piezo-harvesters, commercializing product for harsh
environments, finding a suitable approach for enhancing the electrical out-
puts, and enhancing the durability and the output stability are some future
horizons.
Table 1 sums up related highlights and presents a list of different piezo-
materials used in construction of the piezoelectric harvesters. Most of the
review papers have tried to compare the piezoelectric materials and draw
a roadmap for selecting an appropriate material for an energy harvester.
However, the choice of material is strictly depended on the type of energy
harvester, its working condition, the cost, accessability and ease of fabrica-
tion/synthesis of the piezoelectric material. For example, Ullah Khan and
Ahmad [24] who have reviewed vibration energy harvesters (VEHs) utilizing
bridge oscillations, pointed out that in piezoelectric vibration energy har-
vesters (PE-VEH), the main selection criteria are the dielectric constant, the
Curie temperature, and the modulus of elasticity of the material.
For instance, in high acceleration vibrations, the piezoelectric materi-
als with high value of elastic modulus can be an appropriate choice. How-
ever, the piezoelectric materials like lead lanthanum zirconate titanate, which
has a very high value of dielectric constant will perform very well in low-
acceleration vibration environments. Also, due to the easiness of in situ
fabrication of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) with sol-gel technique, and its
easy integration with the other microfabrication processes, PZT is largely
utilized in most of the developed PE-VEHs.
As another example, we can point out the selection of a desirable piezo-

14
 Table 1: A summary of review papers related to the materials used in piezo-harvesters in
the order of the year of publication.
Bedekar et al. [13]
Lefeuvre et al. [14]
Mukherjee and Datta [15]
Bowen et al. [16]
Chen et al. [17]
Yuan et al. [18]
Narita and Fox [19]
Liu et al. [20]
Mishara et al. [21]
Priya et al. [22]
Materials Highlights
Soft P b(Zr, T i)O3 (PZT), Y Ca4 O(BO3)3 In longitudinal mode co
(YCOB), La3 Ga5 SiO14 (LGS), LiNbO3 (33-mode); annealed mat
(LN) temperature operation.
Soft and hard ceramic PZT, PZT fibre com- In longitudinal (33) and
posites, PMN-0.25PT ceramic, PMN-0.25PT (31) modes.
single crystal, BaT iO3 , PVDF, Quartz
PSI-5H4E Lead Zirconate Titanate, EC-98 Output power; same geom
EC-98 lead magnesium niobate, EC-57 bar- tails, the 31-mode.
ium titanate, EC-97 EC-97 lead titanate, 804
lead zirconate titanate, 906 lead nickel nio-
bate
GaN, AlN, CdS, ZnO, α-quartz, BaT O3 , Comparison of piezo/ferro/
PZT-4 hard PZT, PZT-5H PZT, PMN-PT, materials; 33-, 31- and 15-m
LiNbO3 , PVDF
Metamaterials Unique properties; compa
acoustic, phononic, elec
harvesters.
PZT, PVDF, P(VDF-TrFECTFE), silicone, Comparison with dielectri
Acrylic tive polymers
ZnO, P[VDF-TrFE], PVDF, BaT iO3 , PZT, Comparison with magneto
LiNbO3 loys, and magnetoelectric
composites, and pyroelectr
31-moads.
ZnO, MoS2 , W Se2 , PMN-PZT/PT, PZT, Peak power, peak voltage
Alkaline niobate (KNLN), BaT o3 , AlN, rent, power density
PVDF, Cellular PP, PDMS piezoelectret,
PET/EVA/PET piezoelectret, fluorinated
ethylene propylene (FEP) paralleltunnel
piezoelectret, M13 bacteriophage, fish swim
bladder
PZT, polyvinylidene fluoride, polylac- Focus on piezo-polymers,
tic acid, cellulose, 15polyamides, polyurea, configuration, comparative
polyurethanes ceramic- and polymer-base
PZT, AlN, potassium sodium niobate Methods, circuits, microsca
(KNN), P b(Zn1/3 Nb2/3 )O3 − P bT iO3 , 31-modes; coefficient of the
P b(Mg1/3 Nb2/3 )O3 − P bT iO3 , sion.
P b(Y Nb )O − P bT iO , P bSc T a O
electric material for walking energy harvesting applications. Based on a
review performed by Maghsoudi Nia et al. [25], this application needs an
incombustible, chemically resistant, low price material, which is unbreakable
under harsh conditions. For example, these criteria have made PVDF more
suitable than PZT for the most of piezoelectric harnessing from walking.
Most of the review papers have contented themselves with reporting some
electromechanical properties of piezoelectric materials, and provided a few
information on the accessability, relative cost, chemical properties, ease of
fabrication, and suitable working conditions of different piezoelectrics. This
lack of information is demonstrative of the need for further research and also
the necessity for making more comprehensive, and application-based reviews
on piezoelectric materials.

3.2. Structure
All the piezoelectric energy harvesters include a mechanical part (or
transduction part) which converts the input mechanical energy into elec-
tric charges on the piezoelectric material, and an electric part that keeps the
electric charges and converts them into a suitable form of electric output
like electric direct voltage. Design of the mechanical part of a piezoelectric
energy harvester usually includes the determination of its size, configuration,
working modes, and its materials in order to enhance some of its performance
characteristics like the output electric energy, the conversion efficiency and
the working bandwidth. The size of the piezoelectric energy harvesters vary
from micro and nanoscale (lower than 0.01 cm3) to the macro-scale (75 cm3)
[26].
Upon the literature, the piezoelectric energy harvesters can be classified
from different points of view. Form the view point of operating frequency,
they may divided into two main categories; the resonant type devices which
operate at or near their resonance frequency, and non-resonant systems that
do not depend on any specific frequency to operate. The piezoelectric en-
ergy harvesters may harvest energy from motions in a unique direction or
from multi-directions. Accordingly, they may be single-directional or multi-
directional harvesters. Also, they may have a single or several vibration
modes. The last one is named as multi-modal harvesters. From the view-
point of governing dynamic models, the piezoelectric harvesters may be linear
or non-linear [27]. As indicated in Fig. 3, their configuration may be classi-
fied as cantilever type, stack type, cymbal type, circular diaphragm type, or
the shell and film types.

16
 Wardle et al. discussed several design considerations for microscale piezo-
electric energy harvesters [26]. They stated that the power or energy sources
can be divided into two groups: sources with a fixed energy density (e.g.,
batteries) and sources with a fixed power density (normally ambient energy
harvesters). Figure 4 compares two strategies of fixed-energy and fixed-power
density production of electric power during 1-year and 10-year operating in-
tervals (using the data of seven references). Figure 4 not only provides a
comparison based on the density of the output power, but also indicates that
the power density of the fixed-energy density sources extensively drops after
just 1 year of operation. So, they need maintenance and repair if possible.
Designing an effective power normalization scheme, the strain cancelation
due to multiple input vibration components, optimizing the minimum vibra-
tion level required for positive energy harvesting, and the prototype testing
to eliminate the proof mass are among their suggestions as future works.

Figure 4: Comparison of power density of different strategies of power generation [26].

Priya [28] gave a review of piezo-harvesters appropriate for light-weight

flexible systems with easy mounting, large response, and low-frequency oper-
ation; called the low-profile piezo-transducers in on/off-resonance conditions.
A good discussion on piezoelectric polymers, energy storage circuit, and mi-
croscale piezo-harvesting device is available in the article. They mentioned
that the electrical power generated by the piezoelectric energy harvesters

17
is inversely proportional to the damping ratio, which should be minimized
through proper selection of the materials and design. They also have summa-
rized the conditions leading to the maximum efficiency in low profile piezolec-
tric energy harvesters.
Szarka et al. [29] focused on the electrical design of low-power (lower
than 10 mW) piezoelectric and electromagnetic transduction mechanisms
describing the power electronics circuits. The main review area includes
the AC-DC conversion, the passive and active rectifications, the start-up
issues, the harvester-specific interactions, the voltage conditioning, the DC-
DC charge pumps, the power regulation, and the impedance matching. The
proposed future challenges are developing the start-up topologies with the
input voltages in the order of deci-volts, further improving the conversion
efficiencies of switching converters at micro-watt power levels, the power
efficient control techniques, and the energy harvesting systems for naturally
occurring vibrations.
Guyomar and Lallart [30] discussed the non-linear electronic interfaces
for energy harvesting from mechanical vibrations using piezoelectric cou-
pling. They classified the energy harvesting systems and compared them
based on their performance characteristics and implementation issues. They
demonstrated the use of intermediate energy tanks for decoupling and initial
energy injection for conversion magnification. Limitations for the MEMS-
based designs are for magnetic components like inductors and transformers,
electronic commands, discrete components such as diodes and transistors,
which need to be considered in advanced future designs.
Ibrahim and Vahied [31] focused on tuning the resonant frequency as a
solution to reduction of power output due to deviation from resonance fre-
quency, which is one of the most important challenges of the piezoelectric
system design. The other solution may be widening the operating frequency
bandwidth. They categorized such methods into manual and autonomous
tuning systems and reviewed different manual and automatic techniques for
the frequency tuning. They commented that the most suitable method for
frequency tuning depends on the intended application. Future plans may be
the development of a truly autonomous standalone energy harvester, sup-
plying the necessary power for the tuning mechanism, integration of the
piezoelectric transducer, circuitry, power management, and energy storage
into flexible thin film substrates.
Li et al. [32] presented a review of configurations such as cantilever beam,
discs, cymbals, diaphragms, circular diaphragms, shell-type, and ribbon ge-

18
ometries. They categorized the main types of piezoelectric materials based
on the working frequency of the harvester. They concluded that the piezo-
electric ceramics provide a higher power output, and the piezoelectric poly-
mers generally generate the smallest power output. They also discussed the
optimization methods like the matching frequencies, up converting, the band-
width broadening of piezoelectric energy harvesters, utilizing the metal end
caps to amplify the effective piezoelectric strain constant, and the bi-stable
cantilever structure with white noise excitation. At the end, they reviewed
some design points about three main components of circuits of harvesters,
the rectifier, the regulator, and the energy storage device. They stated that
the biggest challenges for the piezoelectric energy harvesters are the low in-
put frequencies of the mechanical energy sources and the difficulty to get
the piezoelectric harvesters to efficiently respond to them, and the perfor-
mance limit of the piezoelectric materials. Future of the piezoelectric energy
harvesting is dependent on lowering the energy consumption of electronic de-
vices, unless new piezoelectric materials appear to enhance their performance
to a higher level.
Yildirim et al. [33] focused on design considerations to enhance the perfor-
mance of ambient-based piezo-harvesters, including amplification techniques,
resonance tuning methods and introducing the non-linear oscillations. Such
design methods are frequency up conversion, employing mechanical amplifier,
hybrid design of the harvester, increasing the degrees of freedom, preloading
the piezoelectric harvester, multimodal arraying, using extensional modes,
magnetic tuning, mono/bi-stable systems, mechanical stoppers, stochastic
loading, and utilizing piezo-magneto-elastic materials. They categorised the
power amplification techniques and frequency broadening techniques for the
performance enhancement of the vibration-based energy harvesters. They
discussed pros and cons of each technique from the need to extra space for
mechanical amplifiers to preventing damage to piezoelectric elements due to
shock forces in the mechanical non-linear stopper.
Regarding large discrepancies in the definition and tested values of effi-
ciency in literature, Yang et al. [34] tried to investigate different ways to cal-
culate the energy conversion efficiency of the piezoelectric harvesters. How-
ever, this article is not fundamentally a review paper, but there are fruit-
ful classified information about computation of the non-resonance and the
on-resonance efficiencies. They derived an analytical expression for the effi-
ciency of the cantilever piezoelectric energy harvesters. They indicated that
efficiency is related to the electro-mechanical coupling effect, the damping

19
effect, the excitation frequency, the electrical load, the light damping, and
the excitation frequency.
Uchino [35] starts his review by mentioning the historical background of
the piezoelectric energy harvesting, and explaining several misconceptions by
the current researchers. He reviewed the different design approaches followed
by mechanical, electrical, and MEMS engineers. It is mentioned that the five
important figure of merits in piezoelectrics are the piezoelectric strain con-
stant d, the piezoelectric voltage constant g, the electromechanical coupling
factor k, the mechanical quality factor Qm, and the acoustic impedance Z.
Also, energy transfer rates for piezoelectric energy harvesting systems with
typical stiff cymbals and flexible piezoelectric transducers were evaluated
for three phases/steps including mechanical-mechanical energy transfer (as
step 1), mechanical-electrical energy transduction (as step 2) and electrical-
electrical energy transfer (as step 3). Moreover, a hybrid energy harvesting
device which operates under either magnetic and/or mechanical noises was
introduced. It is concluded that the remote signal transmission, energy ac-
cumulation in rechargeable batteries, discovering a genius idea to combine
nano-devices in parallel, and enhancing the energy density in medical appli-
cations have been introduced as future research fields. Uchino, does not have
a positive comment on future of NEMS and MEMS piezoelectric harvesters
due to their very low energy levels (in the order of pW to nW). He believed
that without discovering a genius idea on how to combine thousands of the
nano-devices in parallel and synchronously in phase, the efforts on designing
the NEMS/MEMS piezoelectric harvesters will be in vain just as a dream.
Dell’Anna et al. [36] described the cutting-edge status of the research on
power conditioning, qualitative working principle, adapted control schemes,
and the employed components for the piezoelectric energy harvesters. Seven
criteria were investigated, including efficiency, standalone operation, circuit
complexity, adaptivity, micro-scale compatibility, start-up operation, and the
minimum operating voltage. Ameliorating the performance, optimizing sys-
tems with respect to high peak efficiency performance, the minimum op-
erating voltage, the time-varying exciting frequency and amplitude in real
applications need more close attention in future works
Yang et al. [37] performed a comprehensive review of different designs
strategies, the non-linear methods, the optimization techniques, and the har-
vesting piezo materials in applications like shoes, pacemakers, tire pressure
monitoring systems, bridge and building monitoring. They declared that
high energy conversion efficiency, ease of implementation, and miniaturiza-

20
tion are the main advantages of such systems. However, authors state that
enhancement of energy efficiency of the piezo-based harvesters is still an open
challenge. They also made a systematic performance comparison on some of
the energy harvesters. They pointed out that a considerable gap exists be-
tween the achieved performance and the expected performance. Therefore,
in situ testing, applying more realistic excitations, system-level investiga-
tions on piezo-harvesters integrated with power conditioning circuits, energy
storage elements, sensors, and control circuits are needed to be investigated.
Maamer et al. [27] discussed some missing concepts in previously pub-
lished papers about the main different improvement techniques and the de-
sign concepts for the piezoelectric and electromagnetic transduction. They
classified the mechanical energy harvester improvement techniques. In ad-
dition to the general concepts such as improving efficiency and enhancing
the output power, they reviewed some overlooked concepts such as the non-
resonant and multi-directional systems, techniques for widening the operating
frequency, conceiving a non-resonant system, frequency tuning, geometrical
adjustment, multi-frequency, multi-modal and non-linear systems, frequency-
up conversion, free moving object, and optimization techniques.
Talib et al. [38] explained effective strategies and the key factors to en-
hance the performance of piezoelectric energy harvesters operating at low
frequencies, including the piezoelectric material selection, optimizations of
the shape, size and structure, and development of multi-modal, nonlinear,
multi-directional, and hybrid energy harvesting systems. This review paper
is suitable for the beginners who want to get acquainted with the piezo-
electric materials and some designs of piezoelectric energy harvesters. They
concluded that the recent developments are inclined towards generation of
more power from low-frequency and low-amplitude ambient vibrations with
reduced required piezoelectric material. Adding a single DOF system in the
form of an extension beam or a spring to the piezoelectric beam is a remark-
able advise to enhance the power output. They showed that the multi-modal
energy harvester exhibits a broader bandwidth when its multiple resonance
peaks get closer.
Brenes et al. [39] provided an overlook of existing energy harvesting cir-
cuits and techniques for piezoelectric energy scavenging to distinguish be-
tween existing similar solutions, which are different in practice. Such cate-
gorization is helpful to ponder the advantages and drawbacks of each avail-
able item. Their review is unique since they have classified piezo-systems
based on adaptive versus non-adaptive control strategies, topologies, archi-

21
tectures, techniques form one hand, and electromechanical models from the
other hand. The best system has been introduced with respect to the opti-
mized power efficiency, the design complexity, the strength of coupling, the
multi-stage load adaption, and the vibration frequency.
Al-Yafeai et al. [40] presented a review of design considerations for en-
ergy harvesting from car suspension system, including the piezomaterials,
the mathematical modeling, the power dissipation, number of degree-of-
freedoms, the road input, location of the piezo-system, and the electronic
circuit. Dagdeviren et al. [41] highlighted essential mechanical to electri-
cal conversion processes and the key design considerations of flexible and
stretchable piezoelectric energy harvesters appropriate for soft tissues of hu-
man body, smart robots and metrology tools. They declared that the de-
velopment outlooks of such devices are piezomaterial designs, fabrication
techniques, and device machine mechanics. Table 2 gathers together all de-
sign parameters and descriptions of design points mentioned in the review
papers.

3.3. MEMS/NEMS-based devices

The largest number of reviews on piezo-harvesters have been written in
the field of MEMS or NEMS piezoelectric harvesters. Micro and nanoscale
energy harvesters are very useful for easy powering or charging of mobile
electronics, even in remote areas, without the need for large power storage
elements. MEMS-type devices include cantilever, cymbal and stack whereas
NEMS type devices are wires, rods, fibres, belts and tubes. Generation of
output electric current using piezoelectric energy harvesters faces many limi-
tations and difficulties. Some of these limitations are low output power, high
electric impedance, crack propagation in most of piezoelectric materials due
to overloading, frequency matching of the harvester with vibrational energy
sources, and fabrication/integration of piezoelectrics in micro/nanoscale [42].
Beeby et al. [43] gave a review of existing piezoelectric generators and
micro generators, including the impact coupled, the resonant and human-
powered devices, and the cantilever-based setup in comparison with two
electromagnetic and electrostatic mechanisms. The coupling factor of each
transduction mechanism is summarized in tables classified by the transduc-
tion type. They commented that the piezoelectric generators are the simplest
type of generator to fabricate and are capable of producing relatively high
output voltages, but only at low electrical currents. Their conclusions may
help readers to be familiar with the suitability of each technique.

22
 Table 2: Details of design considerations of piezoelectric energy harvesting systems in the
order of the year of publication.
Al-Yafeai et al. [40]
duToit et al. [26]
Priya [28]
Szarka et al. [29]
Guyomar and Lallart [30]
Ibrahim and Vahied [31]
Li et al. [32]
Chua et al. [81]
Khan and Ahmad [24]
Yildirim et al. [33]
Yang et al. [34]
Uchino [35]
Dell’Anna et al. [36]
Yang et al. [37]
Maamer et al. [27]
Talib et al. [38]
Brenes et al. [39]
General topic Design parameters
Car suspension Circuit, material, mechanisms.
MEMS, vibration The device size; the maximum tip displacement at maximum
power output; operating volume; the mechanical damping ra-
tio; the electrical load; the device mass; the input vibration
characteristics.
Low-profile piezo- Selection of the piezoelectric materials for on and off resonance
transducers applications; analytical models.
Power conditioning Complexity; efficiency; quiescent power consumption; startup
behavior; utilization of the harvester compared to an optimum
load.
MEMS Nonlinear electronic interfaces; small scale implementation;
conversion enhancement principles; switching techniques
Frequency tuning Resonant frequency, the center of gravity, the stiffness (by
axial preload, extensional mode, magnetic/electric methods),
dimension, mass (by adding a tip mass), electrical damping.
Low frequency Geometry, piezoelectric material, matching the resonance fre-
quency of the piezoelectric element to input frequency of the
host structure, electronic circuits design.
Rain drop Circuit design.
Bridge Resonant frequency; material, mechanical and electrical char-
acteristics; the external mechanical and electrical load condi-
tions.
Ambient vibration High-performance design.
Efficiency The non-resonance and the on-resonance efficiencies.
Developments Mechanical-mechanical energy transfer; mechanical-electrical
energy transduction; electrical-electrical energy transfer.
Power management Comparison with respect to seven design criteria
circuits
Applications High-performance; shoes, pacemakers, tire pressure monitor-
ing systems, and bridge and building monitoring; high power
output; broad operational bandwidth.
General The excitation form, the operating frequency band, conceiving
a non-resonant system, multi-directionality (2D case more re-
trievable), possibility of integration in MEMS devices, multi-
23
direction harvesting, lifespan, welding operation.
Low-frequencies Performance increment; multi-modal, nonlinear, and multi-
directional design; material characteristics; optimized geome-
try for high strain energy density; flexibility; high excitation
amplitude; broad bandwidth.
Maximum power Electrical tuning; circuit design; mathematical models; clas-
 Cook-Chennault et al. [44] provided an overview of strategies for power-
ing MEMS via non-regenerative (batteries, microcombustors, turbine, heat
engines, micro-fuel cells) and regenerative (solar cells, thermoelectrics, elec-
tromagnetics, electrostatics, piezoelectrics) power supplies. Investigation of
PMN, PZN, PMN-PT and PZN-PT/polymer composite fabrication, ana-
lytical techniques for prediction of performance, temperature-dependence
of the piezoelectric properties, development of hybrid piezoelectric/storage
devices, enhancement of charge density, cyclic loading type and duration,
nanoscale fabrication, and optimization of combinations of storage and gen-
eration schemes are open areas worthy of exploration. They also made a
comparison between electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric energy
harvesting transduction mechanisms.
Kang et al. [45] focused on recent progress of the bulk-type, MEMS-based,
flexible piezoelectric energy harvesting technologies using PZT from view-
point of material, fabrication, and unique design. The nonorods, nanofibers,
nanoparticles, nonowires, and thin film piezo-harvesters have been investi-
gated. Enhancing performance of the flexible piezoelectric energy harvesting
technologies and the packing density of the active piezomaterials, generation
of uniform and standard output voltage, current, and power are their advises
as future directions.
Muralt et al. [46] discussed the impact of composition, orientation, and
microstructures on piezoelectric properties of perovskite thin films like PbZr1-
xTixO3 (PZT) in applications such as low-voltage radio frequency MEMS
switches and resonators, actuators for millimeter-scale robotics, droplet ejec-
tors, energy harvesters for unattended sensors, and medical imaging trans-
ducers. The article is mostly devoted to review of applications. they con-
cluded that an important point in thin-film piezoelectric harvesters is the
choice of the electrodes. also, it is much better to use interdigitated electrodes
for harvesting with high permittivity piezoelectrics. Matching of effective re-
sistance of the harvesting circuit to the internal piezoelectric resistance is the
only recommended future issue for harvesters in the paper.
Wang [47] gave an overall review of theoretical and experimental char-
acterization methods for predicting and determining the piezoelectric poten-
tial output and the representative models of nanogenerators with the source
of high-frequency acoustic waves and low-frequency vibrations or frictions.
Theoretical predictions have shown that in the nanometer range, flexoelec-
tric effect plays a significant role in enhancement of the electromechanical
coupling. They believe that harvesting ambient mechanical energy at the

24
nanometer scale holds great promises for powering small electronics. The
flexoelectric effect in nanoscale electromechanical coupling considering the
film properties of sub-100 nanometer harvesters including mechanical prop-
erties, coupling between the piezoelectric and semiconductor properties, the
piezoelectric nanomaterial fabrication, the device integration, and adapting
large-scale roll-to-roll processing are the future challenges and opportunities.
Nechibvute et al. [48] presented a review of the piezoelectric micro/nanogenerators
as a renewable energy source to power wireless sensors as autonomous devices.
Their conclusions and comments are reducing the power consumption of the
wireless sensor node by duty cycling, experimental and theoretical model-
ing and optimization of the piezoelectric and flexoelectric effects in single
crystalline nanowires, coupling of piezoelectric and semiconducting effects,
improving the fabrication methods and the associated device integration
techniques, efficient design of interface circuits, advancing power manage-
ment techniques, developing ultralow power wireless micro-controller units,
and enhancing the power output of the piezoelectric generators to match the
requirements of the wireless sensor devices.
Kumar and Kim [49] presented a review on ZnO nanostructures as a good
candidate for energy harnessing, due to its multi-functional characteristics
such as excellent electrical and optical properties, inexpensiveness, relative
abundance, chemical stability towards air, environmental friendliness, and a
much simpler and wide range of crystal-growth technology. They also ex-
plained its potential applications in photovoltaics, piezoelectric nano-energy
generation, and hybrid systems. They claimed that there is a good potential
for ZnO to be used in nanogenerators and hybrid devices to further improve
the output performance, the neutralization of the the piezoelectric poten-
tial screening effect, and optimization and localization of the free carriers in
nanowires.
Kim et al. [50] commented that for the elimination of chemical batteries
and complex wiring in microsystems, a fully assembled energy harvester with
the size of a US quarter dollar coin should be able to generate about 100 micro
Watt of continuous power from ambient vibrations. In addition, the cost of
the device should be sufficiently low. They reviewed challenges of the piezo-
harvester, including the need to high power density and wide bandwidth of
operation of the piezoelectric systems, the non-linear resonating beams for
wide bandwidth resonance, and improvements in materials and the structure
design. They concluded that the epitaxial growth and grain texturing of the
piezomaterials, the embedded medical systems, the lead-free piezoelectric

25
MEMS-based materials, and the giant-piezoelectric coefficient materials are
active research fields. They presented an extensive comparison of thin-film
piezo-systems from various sources and concluded that the state-of-the-art
of power density is still about one order smaller than what is needed for
practical applications.
Toprak and Tigli [51] conducted a review on piezoelectric harvesters based
on their size; nanoscale, microscale, mesoscale, macroscale. They also pre-
sented an interesting statistics that the number of publications between 2009
and 2014 on piezoelectric harvesting is more than twice the sum of publica-
tions about the electromagnetic and electrostatic systems. They commented
that the inherent reciprocal conversion capability is an important advantage
of the piezoelectric energy harvesters, which allows them to have simpler ar-
chitectures compared to their electromagnetic and electrostatic counterparts.
It is declared that the bio-compatibility, the reconciliation with the CMOS
technology, the rectification and storage losses, and enhancing the operation
bandwidth are the most challenging issues about such systems. A discus-
sion on validity of the classical constitutive relations for the piezomaterials
in nanoscale is a missing section of the paper.
Salim et al. [52] announced that to further increase the effectiveness
of the MEMS-based harvesters from ambient energy, researchers started to
venture into hybrid energy harvesters. They elaborated details of hybrid
electromagnetic-piezoelectric and triboelectric/piezoelectric MEMS-based har-
vesters and their privileges such as small features, ability for monolithic inte-
gration with the integrated circuit in a single platform, robustness, and easy
fabrication in bulk. Development of electronic interface circuits, employing
the power produced from the electromagnetic part of a hybrid harvester, and
designing a synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) system are
their recommendations as promising ways for power enhancement.
Briscoe and Dunn [53] summarized works on nanostructured piezoelectric
energy harvesters, including single and arrays of strained ZnO nanorods,
flexible substrates, and alternative nanostructures. Their main focus was
on ZnO-based devices and their paper contains many SEM images of such
materials. They commented that a great advantage of ZnO nano-rods is
that they can be grown in aligned arrays on plastic substrates. This offers
the bending potential of the device by the substrate. Maximizing the rate
of change of any strain delivered into a system to increase the polarization,
improving the coupling of the device to the environment, and advancement
of materials and device architectures are their recommendations for future

26
works.
Wang et al. [54] provided a survey of piezoelectric nanogenerators, funda-
mental piezoelectric theory, typical piezoelectric materials, the working mech-
anisms, modeling, and the structure design concepts. Based on their discus-
sion, typical piezomaterials are natural crystals, natural materials, synthetic
crystals, synthetic ceramics, polymers, lead-free ceramics, organic nanos-
tructures, and piezo-nanowires including the lead-free niobates, piezoelectric
semiconductors, BaT iO3 , and ZnSnO3 . They described the fabrication and
performance of vertical and laterally integrated nanogenerators. Future de-
velopments are increasing the output power, the integration packaging of en-
ergy storage unit with the nanogenerators, optimization of structural design
for various working conditions, the long-term stability, mechanical strength,
and chemical stability.
Khan et al. [55] covered the electro-mechanical properties of thin film
piezomaterials, including the lead zirconate titanate, the lead-free piezoma-
terials, piezopolymer films, cellulose-based electro-active paper (EAPap) in
applications such as sensory and actuation systems, energy harvesting, and
medical and acoustic transducers. They reviewed the enhancement of piezo-
electric response, advances in integration, applications as piezoelectric sen-
sors, actuators, resonators, and energy harvesters of piezoelectric thin films.
They suggested future challenges including the development of high-response
thin film piezoelectrics, refined control of surface roughness, and exploration
of nanoscale and microscale piezoelectric devices.
Selvan and Ali [42] reported benefits, capacities, applications, challenges,
and constraints of micro-power harvesting methods using thermoelectric,
thermophotovoltaic, piezoelectric, and microbial fuel cell. Moreover, they
highlighted outstanding breakthrough performances of each of the mentioned
power generators. They reported that in comparison to other methods, a
piezoelectric system has smaller size and a simpler mechanism, generates
higher output voltage, is highly sensitive to applied strain, possesses higher
frequency response, and experiences a longer life cycle. In the meanwhile, the
piezoelectricity requires flexible and lead-free materials, a wider bandwidth,
and increased operating frequency. The piezo-device’s impedance is high,
and the material is prone to cracking or breaking. Similar to several other
reviews, they recommended that more enhanced methodologies are required
to further increase the energy conversion efficiency making them compact,
wearable, small-scale, and flexible structures.
Todaro et al. [56] reviewed the current status of the MEMS-based en-

27
ergy harvesters using piezoelectric thin films, and highlighted approaches
and strategies. They commented that such harvesters are compact and
cost-effective especially for harvesting energy from environmental vibrations.
They believe that two main challenges of this topic to achieve high-performance
devices is increasing the amount of generated power and the frequency band-
width. They also introduced the theoretical principles and the main figures
of merit of energy conversion in piezoelectric thin films. Other recommenda-
tions for future research are developing proper materials, new device archi-
tectures and strategies involving bimorph and multimorph design exploited
for bandwidth and power density improvements, progressing in synthesis and
growth technologies for lead-free high quality piezoelectrics, employing new
flexible materials with tailored mechanical properties for larger displacement
and lower frequencies, and exploiting the non-linear effects for obtaining a
wider bandwidth and a higher efficiency.
Jing and Kar-Narayan [57] reviewed nanostructured polymer-based piezo-
electric and triboelectric materials as flexible, lightweight, easy and cheap to
fabricate, being lead-free and biocompatible, and robust harvesters. They
highlighted effects of growth parameters, nanoconfinement, self-poling, sur-
face polarization, crystalline phases, and device assembly on energy harvest-
ing performance. They indicated that most of previous research have fo-
cused on certain bulk polymers. Extending such concepts to polymer-based
nanocomposites, and searching for other polymeric candidates like hybrid
materials are necessary. Future research topics are discovering new piezo-
electric polymeric systems and crystalline phases usable as both piezoelectric
and triboelectric harvesters.
Gosavi and Balpande [12] discussed nanodevices, material synthesis tech-
niques, fabrication processes, performance metrics, and device characteriza-
tion of micro/nanoscale piezo-harvesting setups. They listed 15 properties
of piezomaterials, including d31, d33, d15, relative permittivity, polling field
DC, depoling field AC, the Curie temperature, the dielectric breakdown,
density, open-circuit stiffness (E11, E33), compressive strength, compressive
depoling limit, and dynamic/static tensile strength for PZT, PVDF, ZNO,
ALN, BaT iO3 . Also, there is a good discussion on commercial status of
harvesters in the article. They suggested that a great scope for further en-
hancements exists for conversion efficiency and operating frequency band-
width, shifting from micro to nanoscale to boost growth of applications as
implantable nanogenerators, design of hybrid energy devices, self-harvesters,
biocompatible non-toxic and high output flexible energy harvesters based on

28
lead-free piezoelectric thin films.
Table 3 presents a list of details of reviews on micro/nanoscale energy
harvesters. In summery, almost all review articles discussed some great chal-
lenges of development of MEMS/NEMS-based piezoelectric harvesters like
the limited bandwidth and low output power. On the other hand, beside
these type of harvesters, there are some competitive technologies like elec-
tromagnetic, thermoelectric, and electrostatic energy harvesting, which are
employed for scavenging the environment waste energy. Unfortunately, lim-
ited systematic and reliable reviews have been done on comparison of these
harvesting systems. Most of the comparative review papers have focused on
output power and coupling coefficient of the harvesting systems and other
important future like lifetime, capability of working in harsh environmen-
tal condition, cost, commercial accessability and (TRL) technology readiness
levels have been ignored.

3.4. Modeling approaches

Most of review papers have described some of the existing mathemati-
cal models in order to clarify the physical bases of the piezoelectric energy
harvesters for the readers. There are a few number of review papers, which
have focused on evaluation of different modeling approaches for piezoelectric
energy harvesting.
Erturk and Inman investigated mechanical [58] and mathematical [59]
aspects of the cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvesters to avoid reuse of
simpler and incorrect older models in literature. They reviewed the gen-
eral solution of the base excitation problem for transverse and longitudinal
vibrations of a cantilevered Euler-Bernoulli beam. They proved that the
classical single-degree-of-freedom (SODF) predictions may yield highly inac-
curate results, and is just appropriate for high tip-mass-to-beam-mass ratios.
Damping due to internal friction (the Kelvin-Voigt damping), damping re-
lated to the fluid medium, base excitation as a forcing function, and the
backward piezoelectric coupling in the beam equation are among modeling
parameters.
Zhao et al. [60] compared different modeling approaches for galloping
the piezoelectric wind energy harvester, including single-degree-of-freedom,
single-mode and multi-mode Euler-Bernoulli distributed-parameter models
(ignored in Ref. [59]). They concluded that the distributed-parameter model
has a more rational representation of aerodynamic force, while the SDOF
model more precisely predicts the cut-in wind speed and the electro-aeroelastic

29
 Table 3: Details of review papers on piezoelectric energy harvesting for micro/nanoscale
applications in the order of the year of publication.
Beeby et al. [43]
Cook-Chennault et al. [44]
Muralt et al. [46]
Wang [47]
Kumar and Kim [49]
Kim et al. [50]
Toprak and Tigli [51]
Salim et al. [52]
Briscoe and Dunn [53]
Wang et al. [54]
Khan et al. [55]
Selvan and Ali [42]
Todaro et al. [56]
Jing and Kar-Narayan [57]
Gosavi and Balpande [12]
Main topic Extra descriptions and highlights
Vibration-based Comparison with electromagnetic and elec-
trostatic; micro-systems
MEMS portable devices Comparison of non-regenerative and regener-
ative power supply systems
Sensors/actuators/harvesters Thin films; material properties; piezotronics
Nanogenerator Ambient energy harvesting; nanometer scale;
theoretical and experimental characteriza-
tion; the piezotronic effect
Semiconducting ZnO Comparison of its performance in photo-
voltaics and the hybrid setup with piezoelec-
tric harvester
Piezo-MEMS Grain textured and epitaxial piezoelectric
films; lead-free piezoelectric films; nonlin-
ear resonance-based energy harvesting struc-
tures
Size classification Nanoscale, microscale, mesoscale; CMOS
technology
Hybrid MEMS-based Power comparison; architecture; mathemati-
cal modeling; vibration-based micro harvest-
ing; triboelectric, electromagnetic
Nanogenerators Single and arrays of ZnO nanorods; screening
effect; SEM images
Nanowire Vertical-aligned nanowire arrays, lateral-
aligned nanowire networks; nanowire-
composite
Piezo-thin films Electro-mechanical proprieties of thin film
piezo-materials; piezotronics;
Methodological performance Comparative points about thermoelectric,
thermo-photovoltaic, piezoelectric, microbial
fuel cell for micro-scale devoces
Vibration MEMS; Approaches, strategies; thin films;
wurtzite structure
Polymer-based 30 Comparison with triboelectric; nanowires,
PVDF, Nylon, polylactic acid, ZnO-polymer
nanocomposite piezoelectric, polymer-
ceramic hybrids.
Micro/Nanoscale Performance metrics; pyroelectric; commer-
cial status; structural characterization tech-
niques; material synthesis and deposition
behavior. In addition, they performed a parametric study on the effect of
the load resistance, wind exposure area, mass of the bluff body, and length of
the piezoelectric sheet on the cut-in wind speed as well as the output power
level of the GPEH.
Abdelkefi [61] presented an overview of various types of aeroelastic vibra-
tion mechanisms like the flutter in airfoil sections, the vortex-induced vibra-
tions in circular cylinders, the galloping in prismatic structures (D-section,
triangular, square), the wake galloping, the flapping-leaf/flags, T-beam, and
micro-power generators. The strength of this study is the review of math-
ematical models and experimental researches including pure experimental
and combined (linear/non-linear) theoretical/experimental models. They an-
nounced that the existence of two- or three-degree-of-freedom, electro-aero-
mechanical aspects, the placement of piezoelectric sheets, characteristics of
the layers, the mode shapes, and the wake effects, the tip effects, three-
dimensionality, the unsteady wake and stall effects, representation of the
galloping aerodynamic loads, influence of non-linearity, the cross-section ge-
ometry, the Reynolds number, presence of gust and variations in the wind,
the noise effects and disturbance, the small place of installation, and the
prototype fabrication are design-modeling challenges especially for real har-
vesters.
Wei and Jing [62] presented a state-of-the-art review of theory, model-
ing, and realization of the piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrostatic
energy harvesters. The linear inertia-based theory and the non-linear mod-
els have been described for three mentioned vibration-to-electricity convert-
ers. They investigated some characteristics of the piezo-harvesters such as
being unaffected from external/internal electromagnetic waves, simple struc-
ture, depolarization, brittleness of the bulk piezo-layer, the poor coupling in
piezo-film, and the poor adhesion with the electrode materials. Development
of new piezoelectric materials, creation of new energy harvesting configu-
rations by exploring the non-linear benefits, and design of efficient energy
harvesting interface circuits are among their suggestions as future prospects.
They concluded that the non-linearity is an important and effective param-
eter in terms of performance enhancement, and theoretical modeling of the
non-linear system with keeping reliability and stability is a challenging task.
Kim et al. [63] mentioned that the theoretical modeling of piezoelectric
energy harvesters should include not only its structure, but also the piezo-
electric coupling effect as well as the electrical behavior. They performed a
literature review on various mathematical models, which have been employed

31
for the purpose of piezoelectric energy harvesting.

4. Application
4.1. Vibration sources
Vibration is the most common source of energy for piezoelectric har-
vesters, since there is no need to convert the input energy to the mechani-
cal energy to produce electricity in the piezomaterial. Also, its abundance,
accessibility and ubiquity in the environment, in addition to multiple pos-
sible transduction types have made it more attractive for energy harvesting
applications. The response of the piezoelectric materials to the employed
vibrations depends on their electromechanical properties like the natural fre-
quency, their geometry, the electromechanical coefficients, and the damp-
ing characteristics. The design strategies for these types of harvesters, per-
formance enhancement methodologies, behavior of the energy harvesters in
harsh environment, their fatigue life, and failure mode, and the conditioning
electric circuits are some of the important issues, which should be addressed
in the review papers.
Sodano et al. [64], as one of the earliest reviewers of the field, discussed the
future goals that must be achieved for power harvesting systems to find their
way towards the everyday use, and to generate sufficient energy to power
the necessary electronic devices. They mentioned that major limitations in
the field of power harvesting revolve around the fact that the power gener-
ated by the piezoelectric energy harvesters is far too small to power most
electronic devices. Increasing the amount of energy generation, developing
innovative methods of accumulating the energy, use of rechargeable batter-
ies, optimization of the power flow from a piezoelectric setup, minimizing the
circuit losses, identifying the location of power harvesting and the excitation
range, proper tuning of the power harvesting device are their predictions for
future prospects of the vibration-based piezo harvesters at that time.
The review papers like the one presented by Zhu et al. [65] are the result of
an explosive utilization of the vibration-based micro-generators in powering
wireless sensor networks. They demonstrated an overall review of the princi-
ples and the operating strategies to increase the operational frequency range
of the vibration-based micro-generators. This point is the most fundamental
shortcoming of such systems, referring to intermittent and continues elec-
tromechanical tuning and the bandwidth widening. Enhancing the tuning

32
efficiency, designing an extra closed loop system to control the tuning pro-
cess, development of miniature actuators and the non-linear generators with
bi-stable structures are their recommendations as future possible research
topics.
Harb [66] reviewed a brief history of all energy harvesting methods includ-
ing the vibration-based, the electromagnetic-based, the thermal or radioactive-
based, with the source of pressure gradient, the solar and light-based, biolog-
ical, and micro-water flow systems. They also presented the state-of-the-art
of energy harvesting techniques, power conversion, power management, and
the battery charging. It is concluded that it is hard to make a fair comparison
between different methods, due to importance of many number of parameters
that affect the performance. However, it is advised that the different types
of vibrations are the most available and the highest power provider sources.
Kim et al. [63] summarized the key ideas and performances of the piezo-
electric energy harvesters based on vibration, various types, the piezoelectric
materials, and the mathematical modeling of vibrational energy harvesting
devices. They listed 17 important electro-mechanical characteristics of PZT-
5H, PZT-8, and PVDF piezomaterials and described various configurations
such as the cantilever type, the cymbal type, the stack type, and the shell
type. They advised that the future opportunities for research are develop-
ment of high coupling coefficient piezoelectric materials, giving the ability to
sustain under harsh vibrations and shocks, development of flexible and re-
silient piezoelectric materials, and designing efficient electronic circuitry for
energy harvesters.
Bian and Yang [67] introduced a review of theory of vibration energy
harvesting based on piezoelectric materials, and the state of the vibration
energy harvesting using piezomaterials, including the structure, the material
selection, the electrical interface of the energy conversion, the technology of
energy storage, and the application of energy harvesting technology.
Saadon and Sidek [68] presented a brief discussion of vibration-based
MEMS piezoelectric energy harvesters. They summarized various designs
of harvesters and experimentally obtained results in the last 3 years before
the date of publication of the paper. They focused on the working modes
and maximum output power of the MEMS piezoelectric energy harvesters.
They mentioned that two common working modes for MEMS harvesters are
33 mode and 31 mode. It is concluded that the delivered power output
of the MEMS-based devices is still inadequate to be used as a DC power
supply to power mobile electronic devices, remote sensors, and other medical

33
monitoring devices. Designing and fabrication of a novel vibration-based
MEMS micro-power harvesting device, which can provide an optimal desired
DC output power characteristic with high efficiency and may maintain an
output power for wireless sensor networks are the future works.
Harne and Wang [69] reported major efforts and findings documented
in literature about common analytical frameworks and principal results for
bi-stable electromechanical dynamics, and a wide variety of bi-stable energy
harvesters. They summarized various manifestations of the bistable energy
harvesters and their bistability mechanisms. The bi-stable systems may pro-
duce dramatically larger power output, and possess the non-linear behavior
and a broader frequency bandwidth. Based on their discussion, the remain-
ing challenges of such systems are maintaining high-energy orbits, operation
under a stochastic vibratory condition, designing the coupled bi-stable har-
vesters, and defining proper performance metrics.
Siddique et al. [70] provided a literature review on vibration-based mi-
cropower generation using electromagnetic and piezoelectric transduction
systems and hybrid configurations. They reported some performance char-
acteristics of the piezoelectric energy harvesters with different materials and
configurations. They claimed that most of the recent research has been de-
voted to modification of the generator size, shape, and to introduce a power
conditioning circuit to widen the frequency bandwidth of the system. Further
research topics are development of the MEMS-based energy harvesters from
renewable resources and making the miniature electric devices more reliable.
Maamer et al. [27] categorized the common sources of mechanical energies
based on their frequency level. They stated that the harvested power den-
sity from different sources is related mainly to their motion frequency and
magnitude. They made a comprehensive review on different optimization
techniques to harvest more energy from mechanical vibrations.
In summery, different configurations of the piezoelectric cantilevers, their
power output and the performance enhancement strategies have been cov-
ered by the review papers well. However, a systematic comparison of different
configurations of the piezoelectric energy harvesters, and also their ability to
sustain harsh vibrations and shocks, their fatigue life, their cost and access-
ability have not been considered by the reviews.

4.2. Biological sources

Biomechanical energy harvesting presents an important alternative to
electrical energy supplied by batteries for portable electronic devices. An

34
average amount of energy used by the body is 1.07 × 107 J per day. This
amount of energy is equivalent to approximately 800 AA (2500 mAh) batter-
ies with the total weight of about 20 kg. This considerable amounts of human
energy opens the road of development of energy harvesting technologies for
powering electronic devices [71].
Internal charging of implantable medical devices (IMD’s) is the other im-
portant biological application of piezoelectric energy harvesters. Extending
the lifespan of IMD’s and their size minimization have become a main chal-
lenge for their development. For such devices, energy from the body move-
ment, muscle contraction/relaxation, cardiac/lung motions, and the blood
circulation is used for powering medical devices [72]. In addition to bio-
compatibility problems, the main challenges in developing of these types of
energy harvesters lie in constructing a device that can harvest as much energy
as possible with minimal interference with the natural function of the body.
Also, the device should ideally not increase the amount of energy required
by a person to perform his/her activities. Specially for IMD’s, the lifetime
and efficient power output of energy harvesters are of outmost importance.
Figure 5 illustrates magnitude of harvestable energy sources from the human
body organs. Similar values can be predicted more or less from organs of
animals in related applications.
Riemer and Shapiro [71] investigated the amount of electricity, which can
be generated from motion of various parts of the body such as heel strike,
ankle, knee, hip, shoulder, elbow, arm, leg, the center of mass vertical motion
as well as the body heat, using the piezoelectrics and electrical induction
generators. They obtained the amount of positive and negative muscle work
in each case, and the motion where energy is lost to the surroundings (e.g.,
the heel strike). They claimed that such technologies are appropriate for the
third world countries, which is doubtful refereing to its low performance and
high cost of fabrication. Utilizing all phases of the negative work during the
gait cycle, designing a high gear ratio, and improving the effectiveness of the
required control system are among their recommendations as future works.
Mhetre et al. [73] gave a brief review of micro energy harvesting techniques
and methods using the piezoelectric sensors from the limb movements for
drug delivery, dental applications, and the body heat using the piezoelectric
transducers. They just announced that the main challenge is to enhance the
energy output using proper electronic circuit designs. Much more research
is required to harvest energy from other biological parameters such as the
body temperature and respiration.

35
 2- Breathing
100 mW 12- Shoulder
2.2W

1- Upper limbs
10 mW

5- Body heat emission 13- Back pack

100-525 W 50 mW

3- Typing
1mW
11-Elbow
2.1 W

9- Center of mass 10- Hip

20 W 38 W

7- Knees
36 W
4
4- Walking 8- Ankles
1W, 2W 66 W

6- Heel strike
2-20 W

Figure 5: Available sources of energy from the human body organs illustrated on Reza
Abbasi’s ”Prince Muhammad-Beik” drawing. The data number 1-4 from Refs. [7], number
4-13 from [71].

36
 Xin et al. [74] reviewed shoes-equipped piezoelectric energy harvesters.
They described advantages and limitations of the current and newly devel-
oping piezoelectric materials, including the flat plate type, the arch type, the
cantilever type, the nanocomposite-based, the photosensitive-based, and the
hybrid piezoelectric-semiconductors technologies. They announced that en-
hancing the coupling coefficient of the piezoelectric materials and optimizing
the structure of the energy harvester and the energy storing circuit require
further researches.
Hwang et al. [75] addressed the developments of flexible piezoelectric
energy-harvesting devices by using high-quality perovskite thin film and in-
novative flexible fabrication processes. They commented that the bulky types
of the energy harvesters have limited utility as implantable energy sources
inside the human body due to incongruent contact with the corrugated and
curved surfaces of organs such as eye, brain, lung, and heart. In addition,
the energy harvesting devices with thick and rigid substrates are unsuitable
for responding to the movements of internal organs and muscles. Therefore,
extremely slim, lightweight, and pliable energy harvesters on plastic films
such as polyimide (PI), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyethylene
naphthalate (PEN) are required for conformal settlement and energy harvest-
ing on organs. They reviewed and compared different types of flexible thin
film piezoelectric harvesters and sensors including flexible BaTiO3, PZT and
PMN-PT thin-film energy harvesters, which were the candidates for biomed-
ical applications like the self-powered cardiac pacemaker, the biomimetic
artificial hair cells, in vivo energy harvester driven by organ movements, the
direct stimulation of the living heart, and detecting nanoscale cellular deflec-
tions. They commented that the electric power harvested from the bending
motion of a flexible thin film was sufficient to stimulate heart muscles. Also,
Easy bendability, higher conversion efficiency, more sensitive sensing capabil-
ity in nanoscale, self-energy generation and realtime diagnosis/therapy capa-
bilities are among advantages of such systems. It seems that such strategic
devices may have many applications in diverse industries as well as biomedi-
cal cases. This area needs to be more demonstrated in future review studies.
Zheng et al. [72] presented an overall review of the piezoelectric en-
ergy devices in comparison to the triboelectric harvesters with the source of
body movement, muscle contraction/relaxation, cardiac/lung motions, and
the blood circulation. They proposed that future opportunities are fabrica-
tion of intelligent, flexible, stretchable, and fully biodegradable self-powered
medical systems for monitoring biological signals, in vivo and in vitro treat-

37
ment of various diseases, optimization of the output performance, obtaining
higher sensitivity, elasticity, durability and biocompatibility, biodegradable
transient electronics, intelligent control of dynamic properties in vivo, im-
proving the operating lifetimes, and the absorption efficiency.
Surmenev et al. [76] described novel techniques in fabrication of hybrid
piezoelectric polymer-based materials for biomedical energy harvesting ap-
plications such as detection of motion rate of humans, degradation of organic
pollutants, and sterilization of bacteria. They described the different meth-
ods, which are employed for the improvement of the piezoelectric response
of polymeric materials and scaffolds. They also reviewed biomedical devices
and sensors based on hybrid piezo-composites. Similar to most other reviews,
increasing the performance is one of proposed future works. Others are align-
ment of nanofiller particles inside the piezopolymer matrix, developing com-
mon standards for consistently quantifying and evaluating the performance
of various types of piezoelectric materials, and investigation of structural
parameters.
Ali et al. [77] discussed possibilities of the piezo-based energy conver-
sion from the source of muscle relaxation and contraction, the body move-
ment, the blood circulation, lung and cardiac motion in applications such
as pacemakers, blood pressure sensors, cardiac sensors, pulse sensors, deep
brain simulations, biomimetic artificial hair cells, active pressure sensors,
and active strain sensors. The piezoelectric materials containing nanowires,
nanorods, nanotubes, nanoparticles, thin films, the lead-based ceramics, the
lead-free ceramics, the polymer-based materials, the textured polycrystalline
materials, and the biological piezomaterials have been evaluated. They pro-
posed several challenging problems such as flexibility to fit into the shape of
an organ, proper management of power, selection of media for electrical con-
nection, enhancing the biological safety, designing the interface between the
body tissue and the implanted piezomaterial, efficient encapsulation, further
miniaturization, and conducting related experiments on small/large animal
and human cases.
The reviewed articles about the biological applications have focused on
highlighting new materials and structures of biological energy harvesters and
their power outputs. Bio-compatibility, interference of the devices with bio-
logical organs, reliability of the device along with its lifetime and economical
issues are open topics in the field. Table 4 summarizes different highlights
and descriptions of reviews related to biological applications.

38
 Table 4: Details of review papers on piezoelectric energy harvesting in biological applica-
tions in the order of the year of publication.
Review period #Refs. General topic Extra description and highligh
Riemer and Shapiro [71] 1977-2009 38 Biomechanical Human motion and body heat;
parison with electrical induction g
ators.
Mhetre et al. [73] 1990-2010 29 Human ener- Dental applications; drug delivery
gies
Hwang et al. [75] 1955-2014 71 Biomedical Flexible thin film nanosensors and
cases vesters; harvesting from slight and
movements.
Zheng et al. [72] 1955-2017 107 Biomedical Comparison with triboelectric
vester.
Surmenev et al. [76] 1974-2018 235 Biomedical Hybrid piezocomposites; poly
based harvesters; antibacterial e

Ali et al. [77] 1962-2018 240 Human body Mechanical, thermal, and che
bioenergies; details of piezo-device

39
4.3. Fluids
Various forms of renewable energies such as sunlight, heat, wind, ocean
waves and tidal currents are obtained from energies in our planet. For ex-
ample Truitt and Mahmoodi [78] reviewed effects of wind-based energy har-
vesting from vibrations generated by different bluff bodies and aeroelastic
instabilities (fluttering and galloping). They presented an overall study of
energy generation density and the peak power outputs versus bandwidth.
After a limited review of dynamics of piezoelectric energy harvesters, theo-
ries and principles, energy densities and output powers, they concluded that
the balance of efficiency-cost-manufacturability is the future horizon of the
topic. They suggested the use of PVDFs in fluid excitation applications due
to their increased flexibility over PZTs. They concluded that the flutter-
and galloping-based methods generate a higher output power, but with a
narrower frequency bandwidth in comparison to the vortex induced meth-
ods. Also, the final frontier in energy harvesting seems to be active energy
harvesting in which the system dynamics was actively changed in real time
to meet changing environmental dynamics.
Results of the review conducted by Wong et al. [79] implies that the piezo-
electric harvesting form rain drop has privileges such as simple structure,
easier fabrication, reduced number of components, and direct conversion of
vibrations to electrical charge. They presented a summary of different ma-
terials, mechanisms, dimension, velocity and kinetic energy of the raindrop,
type of impact, and the load impedance. They stated that the main challenge
in this field is to design and optimize the raindrop harvester for outdoor use,
being resistant against sunlight, wind, the impact force of larger drops, being
waterproof, showing appropriate sensitivity to drops, supplying constant-rate
energy over long periods of time, and optimum power efficiency. Some of con-
clusions and challenges presented in the paper are general characteristics of
all piezo-based harvesters. Hence, a more close focus on aspects related to
the raindrop energy production is needed.
McCarthy et al. [80] reviewed the research done on piezoelectric en-
ergy harvesting utilizing the fluttering. They introduced the mathematical
terms used across the literature to define the performance of the flutter har-
vester. They discussed effect of the Strouhal number as a function of the
Reynolds number, the wind characteristics, and the atmospheric boundary
layer (ABL). They declared that the ultra-low power densities, long return
period on investments, and quantification and alleviation of the fatigue dam-
age are the most challenges for fluttering energy harvesting. In their opin-

40
ion, determining the fatigue life and some metrics of a piezoelectric flutter,
weather and precipitation effects are active research fields.
Chua et al. [81] reviewed different types of raindrop kinetic energy piezo-
electric harvesters, including the bridge-structure, the cantilever structure
with the impact point near the free-end, the cantilever structure with six im-
pact points at varies surface locations, the cantilever structure with impact
point at the center, the PVDF membrane or the PZT edge-anchored plate,
and the collecting diaphragm cantilevers. Also, they presented a brief sum-
mary of hybrid harvesters. It is stated that the best parameter to compare
different harvesters is efficiency rather than the output peak power. Then
based on this criterion, it is found that the cantilever-type and the bridge-
type energy harvesters made of PZT are the best choices. This is in contrast
to the recommendations of Wong et al. [79]. In addition, an overview of the
critical points about the circuit design of piezomaterials for harvesting en-
ergy from the raindrop kinetic energy has been presented. Despite of unique
review of circuits for such applications, a limited number of future directions
of the hybrid systems have been expressed, including enhancement of the
efficiency of hybrid energy harvesters and developing innovative methods to
harvest more types of energies within one hybrid system.
Viet et al. [82] first compared three energy harvesting methods, includ-
ing electrostatic, electromagnetic and piezoelectric technologies to indicate
privileges of the piezoelectric harvesting in power generation, transmission,
structural installation, and the economic costs. Then, they reviewed different
design methodologies of harvesting energy from ocean waves. Effects of lon-
gitudinal, bending, and shear couplings have been discussed. It is concluded
that due to higher energy generation density, higher voltage generation capa-
bility, simpler configuration, and more economical benefits, the piezoelectric
technology is superior to two other methods. They recommended magnifi-
cation of the induced stress and strain in piezoelectric materials, designing
piezoelectric harvesters, which utilize d33 d15 coupling modes, and opti-
mization of energy conversion without energy leakage based on an excited
frequency as future directions.
Elahi et al. [83] studied the fluid-structure interaction-based, the human-
based, and the vibration-based energy harvesting mechanisms by qualita-
tively and quantitatively analyzing the existing piezoelectric mechanisms.
They reviewed the vortex-induced vibration, fluttering, galloping, as well as
the human-related structures. They commented that significant amount of
research has been conducted on aeroelastic energy harvesters, but aerody-

41
namic models can be improved by taking into account steady, quasi-steady,
and unsteady aerodynamics. Performing experiments on under-water piezo-
materials, using multiple flexible piezoelectric patches, design of the laptop
keyboard or the keypad of a cellular phone with piezoelectric patches, devel-
oping the doped piezoelectric patches with higher coupling coefficients, and
utilizing the specialized amplifiers are the future research guidelines.
Hamkehdar et al. [84] presented a review of energy harvesting from fluid
flows. Despite the general topic of the paper, the piezo-energy harvesting
from blood as a liquid has been ignored. However, they have performed a
literature review on vortex induced vibration, the vortex street, the flutter
induced motion, the galloping, and the waves with water and air as working
fluids. Also, there is a short discussion on modeling challenges. Moreover,
different types of energy harvesting mechanisms have been studied in or-
der to identify their advantages and weaknesses. Increasing the frequency
of harvesters using converters with two buoys, investigating fundamentals
of biomimetic in future energy harvesting devices, and harvesting from oil
pipelines considering the safety issues are their recommendations for the ex-
tension of the topic.
Wnag et al. [85] categorized the FIVs for energy harvesting into four
categories based on different vibration mechanisms: vortex induced vibra-
tion, galloping, fluttering, and buffeting. They discussed the vortex-induced
vibrations and buffeting (as forced vibration cases), galloping and flutter
(as limit-cycle vibration items) using electromagnetic, piezoelectric, electro-
static, dielectric and triboelectric methods as well as the corresponding nu-
merical and experimental endeavors. They presented a fruitful summary
of the current research status on flow-induced vibration hydro/aero energy
harvesters. It is concluded that the flow pattern around bluff bodies, the
size limitations, estimation of costs of equipment, the maintenance costs, the
lifespan, protection of equipment in the case of extreme weather, possible
environmental impacts, the non-linear modeling, the intelligent regulating
elements such as artificial neural network, implementation of hybrid multi-
purpose energy harvesters, and development of new materials need to be
further studied. However, a distinct conclusion about the piezoelectric en-
ergy harvesting in comparison to other techniques has not been provided in
the paper. Table 5 presents the details and highlights of review papers on
fluid-based piezo-energy harvesting.

42
 Table 5: Details of review papers on piezoelectric energy harvesting from fluids in the
order of the year of publication.
Review period #Refs. General Extra description and highligh
topic
uitt and Mahmoodi [78] 1945-2013 62 Wind The best material choice, the best
vesting methodology
ong et al. [79] 1948-2014 87 Raindrop Raindrop size, output power.
cCarthy et al. [80] 1935-2015 96 Wind Comparison with different metho
energy harvesting from fluttering;
level; performance metrics; fa
damage.
bdelkefi [61] 1990-2015 224 Aeroelastic Review of modeling methods, p
conditioning, realistic prototypes.
hua et al. [81] 1976-2015 73 Raindrop Interface circ
light/moderate/heavy/violent
the best material choice, optimiza
different shapes.
et et al. [82] 1998-2016 96 Ocean Structural installation; economic c
waves comparison with electrostatic and
tromagnetic methods.
ahi et al. [83] 1959-2018 256 FSI Comparison with human-based
vibration-based piezo-mechanisms
mlehdar et al. [84] 1987-2019 199 Fluids Includes just water and air; a brie
view of modeling approaches.
ang et al. [85] 1990-2020 125 Flow- More detailed mathematical mo
induced demonstration of the current rese
vibration field; investigation of electromagn
piezoelectric, electrostatic, diele
and triboelectric.

43
4.4. Ambient waste energy sources
Pillai and Deenadayalan [86] presented a review of acoustic energy har-
vesting methods and piezoelectricity as a promising technology in this cat-
egory due to being sensitive and efficient at high frequency excitations.
They described the working principle of the acoustic resonator energy har-
vester, the sonic crystal energy harvester, the allied acoustic energy harvester,
the hydraulic pressure energy harvester, and some special types of thermo-
acoustic energy harvesting. They investigated matching of the resonant fre-
quency of the piezoelectric crystal and the resonant frequency of the resonator
tube, optimization of the system, and the electrodynamic arrangement of the
piezoelectric material. They also discussed the thermo-acoustic energy har-
vesting, which generates electrical power from traveling and standing waves
with high conversion efficiency, reliability, environmental friendliness, and
high fabrication cost. Based on their conclusions, optimization of the res-
onator and the coupling of thermo-acoustic engine to the acoustic-electricity
conversion transducer is an open research fields.
Khan and Izhar [87] reviewed the recent developments in the field of
electromagnetic- and piezoelectric-based acoustic energy harvesting. They
reported sound pressure levels of various ambient acoustic energy sources.
They focused on the Helmholtz’s resonator and also the membrane piezoelec-
tric energy harvesters. They compared electromagnetic- and piezoelectric-
based acoustic energy harvesters and concluded that the size of both sys-
tems are comparable in millimeter scale, and the resonant frequencies of the
electromagnetic system is lower (143-470 Hz versus 146 Hz-16.7 kHz). A
set of useful data about the sound pressure level (dB) and the frequency
of various acoustic energy sources have been reported. They declared that
researchers were focusing on enhancing the performance of the piezoelectric
membrane through novel fabrications and optimized geometrical configura-
tions. Obtaining an optimum design of the Helmholtz’s cavity and an efficient
transduction mechanism are future horizons in this field.
Performance of the electromagnetic- and piezoelectric-based vibration en-
ergy harvesters for energy production from bridges has been evaluated by
Khan and Ahmad [24]. Their review includes unimorph cantilever type PE-
VEH, bimorph cantilever type PE-VEH, and membrane-type piezoelectric
PE-VEH. They have expressed that the majority of current harvesters are
constructed based on the electromagnetic effect, but the piezomaterials are
commercially available and are easy to be developed. The resonant frequency

44
is a critical parameter in such narrow-band low-frequency applications, which
is a privilege of the electromagnetic systems.
Duarte and Ferreira [88] made a comparative study on road pavement
energy harvesting technologies. Their study was performed on solar energy
harvesting including photovoltaic, thermoelectric, and ASC technologies, and
vehicle mechanical energy harvesting including piezoelectric and electromag-
netic technologies. They compared the aforementioned technologies based on
the installed power (per area or volume), conversion efficiency, power density
and the energy generation of the technology in normal operating conditions.
Also, they classified the harvesting technologies based on their TRL (technol-
ogy readiness levels) values. It is demonstrated that the piezoelectric tech-
nology is at high TRL grades. But, it delivers insufficient energy production
rate with low economic characteristics. On the other hand, quantification of
the conversion efficiency of the technologies, unfixed harvesting systems, use
of generated electrical energy to directly supply electrical equipment near the
railway, optimization and testing of systems in real environments, injection
of energy into the electrical grid, simultaneous use of harvesting and stor-
age, and the effect of railway dynamics on the developed systems need more
careful attention.
Guo and Lu [89] discussed recent advances in application of thermoelec-
tric and piezoelectric energy harvesting technologies from pavements. They
found out that a pipe system cooperating with a thermoelectric generator
is superior in terms of cost effectiveness and electricity output to piezoelec-
tric transducers (fabricated with PZT) in such applications. Based on their
recommendations, impact of the mentioned energy harvesting facilities to
pavement performance, life cycle assessments, optimization with respect to
traffic conditions and solar radiation, and the change in vehicle fuel consump-
tion due to additional vehicle vibration or resistance should be evaluated in
future works.
Maghsoudi Nia et al. [25] presented different technologies of converting
the kinetic energy of the human body during walking to electricity by locating
a harvesting system on the body or inserting a harvester in the floor. They
found that the performance of the body-fitted case is highly dependent on
the location of the piezo-generator, the average acceleration and frequency of
the motion, and the physiological parameters. But, the generated electrical
power in the pavement version is more reliable. In contrast to the results
of Guo and Lu [89], it is recommended that the piezoelectric harvester is a
better choice for such applications, due to simplicity and flexibility, regardless

45
of lower power output.
Duarte and Ferreira [90] presented a comparative study of photovoltaic,
thermoelectric, electromagnetic, hydraulic, pneumatic, electromechanical, and
piezoelectric harvesting technologies. Evaluation parameters to compare
studies are the conversion efficiency, the maximum generated power, the
installation method, and their TRL. They declared that the essential eco-
nomic data of products are not yet available. No more detailed suggestions
for future directions and open research fields has been presented.
Yildirim et al. [33] reviewed amplification techniques, resonance tuning
methods, and non-linear oscillations in applications involving the ambient
vibration harvesting, based on piezoelectric, electrostatic, and electromag-
netic conversion methods. The investigated sources of energy scavenging
are the car engine, the blender casing, the clothes dryer, a closing door,
HVAC systems, windows, compact disk driver, and the second story floor of
an office. They offered several design advises to enhance the performance
characteristics before such devices can be used in industrial or everyday-life
applications.
Wang et al. [91] illustrated applications of photovoltaic cells, solar col-
lectors, geothermal, thermoelectric, electromagnetic, and piezoelectric en-
ergy extraction systems from bridges and roads in terms of energy output,
benefit-cost ratio, and technology readiness level. They employed the con-
cept of levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) to evaluate the cost required to
produce the same unit quantity of electrical energy, which was defined as the
total costs divided by total electrical energy produced. They implied that the
fatigue failure analysis of the mechanical loading, the stress concentration de-
pending on the packaging integrity, the initial installment, the maintenance
and repair, the operating costs during the service life, and assessing the en-
vironmental impact of the energy harvesting systems are potential research
fields. Based on their conclusions, the grade of support of the piezoelectric
harvesters by governments is low to medium, while the solar and geothermal
systems are strongly being supported.
Al-Yafeai et al. [40] reviewed the methodologies to convert the dissipated
energy in the suspension dampers of a car to electricity, along with discussing
the mathematical car models and respective experimental setups. The dis-
advantages of the piezo-generator in comparison to other methods are poor
coupling, high output impedance, charge leakage, and low output current.
However, advantages are simple structure, no need to external voltage sources
and mechanical constraints, compatibility with MEMS-based devices, high

46
output voltage, and having wide frequency range. They declared that in-
vestigation of harvesting energy from a full car model, the direction of the
exerted force and optimization of the harvester could be addressed in future
investigations. Table 6 presents details and highlights of the review papers
on ambient and waste energy piezo-harvesting methods.

5. Challenges and the roadmap for future research

Table 7 illustrates the number of published review papers on each field,
the year of the first and the last published review paper, and the research
fund sources. It is obvious that energy harvesting from ambient energies,
the MEMS/NEMS-based, the fluid-based harvesting, and material consid-
erations, respectively possess the highest rate of publication of the review
papers. The largest number of reviews is written about the MEMS-based
harvesters and the design issues. The numbers in parenthesis also demon-
strate the number of funded review papers. Although, it is predictable that
some supporters prefer to remain anonymous, it is seen that about 46% of
papers have been supported by a non-university organization. The last col-
umn of the table presents a list of organizations and respected countries,
which have devoted a full/partial financial support to the review papers on
piezomaterials.
It is expected that the new review papers focus on more specific top-
ics than general reviews. However, they may still contain some degree of
generality. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the field, it is vital to
give comprehensive reviews on very detailed aspects of the piezoelectric har-
vesters. Publication of review papers with general topics is not very welcomed
anymore. Also, the rate of publication of the review papers on biological
applications is less than the expected rate. Due to the rapid progress of
piezoelectricity in biomedical engineering, increasing the number of reviews
in related fields is inevitable. We suggest the researchers to present some
state-of-the-art articles with specific topics including progress in piezoelec-
tric materials, new applications of piezoelectric energy harvesters, and new
developments in MEMS and NEMS piezoelectric harvesters.
The results of comparative researches on energy harvesters for the railway
demonstrated that, even in macroscale energy harvesting, the piezoelectric
energy harvesters are not very successful with respect to other harvesting
technologies. This situation may be worst for micro and nanoscale harvesters.
We predict that the single (non-hybrid) piezoelectric energy harvesters would

47
 Table 6: Details of review papers on piezoelectric energy harvesting from ambient waste
energy in the order of the year of publication.
Review period #Refs. General topic Extra description and
Pillai and Deenadayalan [86] 1968-2013 80 Acoustics Thermo-acoustic engi
standing and travelin
resonant frequency.
Khan and Izhar [87] 1964-2014 54 Acoustics Comparison with elect
harvester; the resonant
size of harvesters.
Khan and Ahmad [24] 1985-2014 49 Bridge Comparison with the e
netic harvester; resonant

Xin et al. [74] 1969-2015 53 Shoes Different types of system

for shoes.
Duarte and Ferreira [88] 1995-2015 34 Railway tracks Comparison with electr
electromechanical actuat
draulic actuation technol
nology readiness level (T

Guo and Lu [89] 1944-2016 65 Pavement Comparison with the the

system; cost-effectiveness
Maghsoudi Nia et al. [25] 1995-2015 42 Walking, pave- Comparison with elect
ment harvesters; comparison
fitted and pavement harv
Duarte and Ferreira [90] 1979-2016 97 Road pave- Comparison with ph
ments thermoelectric, ASC,
magnetic, hydraulic,
electromechanical, an
harvesting technologies.
Yildirim et al. [33] 1996-2015 105 Ambient Car engine, blender casi
vibration dryer, closing a door, H
tems, windows, compact
48
and the second story flo
fice.
Wang et al. [91] 1982-2018 120 Roadway and Comparison with photov
bridge solar collector, geotherm
electric, electromagnetic
port; government suppor
be the true choice only in some specific applications in which other harvesting
systems have inherent limitations. Thus, there is an essential need for making
fair comparisons of all types of energy harvesters for specific applications.
On the other hand, we encounter the growing number of publications on
piezoelectric energy harvesters with respect to other harvesting methods.
It should be noted that although the researchers have an strange tendency
for developing these types of harvesters, the real world will select energy
harvesting systems with higher performances and lower costs.
Based on the data listed in Table 7, we may detect three types of research
lines,
1. Pioneering topics, which are still under consideration: general reviews
(2005-2019), the design key points (2005-2020), the material-related
studies (2009-2019), the MEMS-based devices (2006-219),
2. Pioneering topics without recent publication of review papers: the mod-
eling approaches (2008-2017), the vibration-based harvesters (2004-
2015), sensors and actuators (2007-2016),
3. The newly developed topics: fluids (2013-2020), ambient waste energy
(2014-2020), the biological applications (2011-2019).
The missing topics and concluding future research topics, which need
more close investigations to demonstrate their state-of-the-art are
1. Development of hybrid multi-purpose energy generators to completely
harness energy of any kind and with any characteristics combining the
piezo-pyro-tribo-flexo-thermo-photoelectric technologies.
2. Investigation of the mathematical models, the analytical and numeri-
cal solution techniques especially in nanoscale geometries in which the
classical continuum mechanics principal fails or in stochastic and non-
linear situations. Some modified constitutive relations may need to be
developed in non-continuum regimes. Also, the second law analysis
and investigation of such systems from the thermodynamic viewpoint
are missing topics. The ab initio first principal simulations with an
atomistic nature are other challenging aspects of the nanoscale piezo-
harvesters. Development of opensource codes like OpenFOAM and
LAMMPS to include solvers involving the piezoelectric effect may be
another future research topic.
3. Application of piezomaterials in energy saving or reducing the energy
demand of a system rather than generation of energy requires a com-
prehensive review. An example of such energy reduction is the delay

49
 Table 7: Statistics of review papers published on different topics related to piezoelectric
energy harvesting. The numbers in parenthesis demonstrate the number of funded review
papers in each field.
Topic #reviews Period # reviews per year Non-university research fund sources
1 General 8(4) 2005-2019 0.53 National Science Foundation (USA), National Natural Science Foundatio
Ministry of Science and Technology and the Regional European Developmen
Union), NanoBioTouch European project/Telecom Italia/Scuola Superiore
2 Design 15(5) 2005-2020 0.94 Texas ARP (USA), U.S. Department of Energy Wind and Water Powe
fice (USA), Ministry of Higher Education (Malaysia), Natural Scienc
Research Council (Canada), National Natural Science Foundation (Chi
project/Bevilgning
3 Material 11(7) 2009-2019 1.00 M/s Bharat Electronics Limited (India), National Nature Science Found
fice of Basic Energy Sciences, Department of Energy (USA)/Center for
Sensors funded by the Korea Ministry of Science (Korea), National Nat
dation (China)/Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shangha
opment Foundation (China), European Research Council/European Metro
gramme/ UK National Measurement System, National Natural Science F
China scholarship Council/China Ministry of Education/Institute of soun
4 Modeling 5(3) 2008-2017 0.5 Air Force Office of Scientific Research (USA), Air Force Office of Scientifi
a NSFC project of China
5 Vibration 8(1) 2004-2015 0.67 Energy Efficiency & Resources of the Korea Institute of Energy T
tion/Creative Research Initiatives
6 Biology 6(5) 2011-2019 0.67 Russian Science Foundation/Alexander von Humboldt Foundation/Euro
National Key R&D Project from Minister of Science and Technology (Ch
Research Program (Korea)/Center for Integrated Smart Sensors as Globa
R&D Center for Green Patrol Technologies through the R&D for Global T
Technologies program funded by the Korean Ministry of Environment, P
for Robotics and Manufacturing Research/Pearlstone Center for Aeronaut
7 Sensors 5(4) 2007-2016 0.5 Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, NSSEFF/fellowship/ NSF/ B
nology PArtners/the Center for Dielectric Studies/ARO/DARPA/the Mat
stitute/U.S Army Research Laboratory, Converging Research Center Progr
of Education Science and Technology (Korea), Basic Science Research Pr
National Research Foundation of Korea
8 MEMS/NEMS 15(7) 2006-2019 1.07 National Science Foundation (China), the Basic Science Research Program
tional Research Foundation of Korea, European Research Council, Min
(Malaysia), Office of Basic Energy Sciences Department of Energy (USA)
search and Development Program of the National Research Foundation of
9 Fluids 8(3) 2013-2020 1.00 Ministry of Higher Education (Malaysia), National Natural Science Founda
tralian Research Council/FCSTPty Ltd
10 Ambient 11(4) 2014-2020 1.57 Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (USA), Portugu
Science and Technology, European Regional Development Fund, Nation
Foundation of China

50
 in decaying disturbances and delaying transition to turbulence using
piezo-actuators placed on the surface of bluff bodies.
4. Due to the multi-physics nature of the piezoelectric effect, it is highly
recommended to prepare review papers on optimization methods as a
complicated task in research roadmap of the piezo-harvesters.
5. Commercialization of the piezo-based harvesters and enhancing the
technology readiness level need a serious attention. Perhaps, the next
decade is the decade of extensive commercialization of the piezo-harvesters.
6. Plenty of patents have been published in recent years. Even some
review papers should be devoted to investigation of patents presented
in the field.
7. Focused reviews are needed on vibration-based piezo-harvesters in four
recent years, development of piezotronics, and design of complete self-
powered autonomous systems.
8. The overall design of devices including all parts, integrating the whole
device in thin films, accumulation in rechargeable batteries, and taking
into account the energy consumption needed to store the harvested
energy.
9. Optimization of device architecture and size reducing configurations
for portable applications, flexible wearable compact embedding im-
plantable devices.
10. In situ prototype testing and design of harvesters coupled with en-
vironment and realistic applications to face with sunlight in outdoor
applications, naturally occurring stochastic vibrations, the wind speed
variation, dust, noises, required flexibility to fit the shape of human
organs, and waterproofness.
11. Quantification of the figure of merit for piezomaterial properties such
as energy transforming or conversion efficiency and standardizing the
performance of piezo-based devices.
12. Reducing the maintenance cost, enhancing the lifespan, ameliorating
the performance, analysis of government supports, the cost-benefit bal-
ance, and investigations of piezo-harvesting from energy policy view-
point.
13. Thermal design of piezo-systems including the temperature-dependence
properties and high-temperature harvesting limitations.
14. Fabrication of new piezomaterials with the non-linear behavior, larger
displacements, lower frequency, wider operation bandwidth, and the
frequency self-adaptation capabilities.

51
 15. Use of metamaterials, non-toxic, biocompatible, printable piezomateri-
als, nanofibers, lead-free and high-piezoelectric coefficient materials to
present new piezomaterials.
16. Improving design of electrical circuitry and managing rectification and
storage losses.
17. Modified structural designs including fracture-fatigue studies to in-
creases reliability, stability, and durability of the device.
18. Design of efficient control techniques.
19. Extending the application of piezomaterials in novel fields such as in-
ternet of things.
However, the research on piezoelectric energy harvesting is not mature
enough and many interdisciplinary active research fields are currently avail-
able. It should be mentioned that the progress of small-scale devices with
very low power need is tightly tied to the revolution in design of efficient
high-output power piezoelectric energy harvesters.

Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the Iran National Science Foundation
(Grant number 98017606).

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