Printed nanocomposite energy harvesters
Built and integrated the systems for a custom 3D printer that produces piezoelectric nanocomposites with controlled filler alignment. Published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2018) with Mohammad Malakooti and Henry Sodano.
Overview
Piezoelectric nanocomposites are good candidates for self-powered sensors and energy harvesters, but their performance is capped by random filler orientation. The work used direct-write Additive Manufacturing (AM) to print Barium Titanate ($\mathrm{BaTiO_3}$) nanowire / Polylactic Acid (PLA) composites with controlled nanowire alignment along three axes via shear-induced alignment during printing.
Optimally aligned printed samples reached 8× higher power output than randomly oriented printed composites and 273% more than conventionally cast composites — the first demonstration of nanocomposite energy harvesters with spatially controlled filler orientation produced from a digital design.
My contribution: building and integrating the systems that operate the custom 3D printer. Published in American Chemical Society (ACS) Applied Materials & Interfaces (2018) with Mohammad Malakooti and Henry Sodano as co-authors.