3D Printed Piezoelectric Porous Structure with Enhanced Output Performance and Stress-electricity Response for Road Energy Harvesting

With the continuous innovation of intelligent interaction and energy technology, piezoelectric devices have attracted immense attention due to their unique stress-electricity response and conversion characteristics. Nevertheless, the limited structural variety and the lack of theoretical basis greatly limit the performance breakthrough and application prospect of these devices. Herein, a series of novel piezoelectric enhanced porous structures with excellent output performance was designed and prepared by powder bed fusion of polymers using a laser beam (PBF-LB/P). Using theoretical analysis and analog simulation, the influence mechanism of porous structure size characteristics (pore shape and line thickness) on piezoelectric performance was established. As a proof-of-concept, a piezoelectric road energy harvester based on cross-shaped structure was successfully constructed and optimized. The enhanced piezoelectric properties included an open-circuit voltage of 60.5 V and a short-circuit current of 654.2 nA, which were better than those of most reported piezoelectric parts. In addition, the energy harvester also exhibited outstanding piezoelectric response and energy supply efficiency in different stress modes and actual road environment. Hence, this work not only contributes a new route to develop novel piezoelectric structures, but also greatly enriches the application scenarios and functions of piezoelectric devices.