Fabrication of solidified ionic liquid with 3D microstructures and its application to vibration energy harvester

Abstract

In this study, we propose a solidified ionic liquid with a 3D microstructure to increase its surface area for the performance enhancement of a vibration energy harvester (VEH). By soft lithography in MEMS technologies, the use of a mold is proposed to perform the solidification, polarization, and microstructure transfer of the solidified ionic liquid simultaneously. We fabricated six samples with different surface shapes and sizes to compare the power generation performance characteristics of VEHs using a solidified ionic liquid. According to a vibration test, the performance of the VEH with nanometer roughness was improved at a 10 Hz frequency. Also, the output power of the VEH with a micro-folded hollow conical structure was improved at a 50 Hz frequency.