Pyroelectric Materials for Energy Harvesting

Temperature fluctuations occur regularly in our daily lives and a ubiquitous and abundant source of ambient energy. A huge amount of waste heat (approximately 340 exajoules) is released annually from industries, public gatherings and other sources. Of this energy, almost 60% is in the form of low-grade waste heat, at temperatures below 100°C (Forman et al., 2016), which cannot be used to generate electricity using a steam turbine. Pyroelectric materials (PMs) can convert heat energy to electrical energy through temperature oscillations i.e., heating and cooling. Currently, these materials are widely used in IR sensors and imaging applications, however, there have been reports of pyroelectric materials can also be utilized for some catalytic processes such as dye degradation, the removal of contaminants from water, CO2 reduction and water splitting.