IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chsofr/v199y2025ip1s0960077925007039.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A liquid crystal elastomer-based generator using light-powered self-oscillations

Author

Listed:
  • Ge, Dali
  • Bao, Wu
  • Chen, Haiming
  • Li, Kai

Abstract

Self-oscillation can overcome many limitations of traditional energy harvesting systems, providing stable voltage output without the need for additional controllers or contact with external vibrators. Leveraging light-driven self-oscillation, this paper presents a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE)-based generator, consisting of a LCE film, a sandwich beam made of two piezoelectric layers and a substrate layer, along with a resistor. Based on the evolution of photothermal temperature, the control equation for the light-driven self-oscillation of generator was derived. Through numerical calculations, two patterns are identified, namely, the static pattern and the self-oscillation pattern, and the mechanism of generation is revealed. In each self-oscillating cycle, the photothermal-induced contraction and recovery of the liquid crystal elastomer film cause the cantilever to bend, generating compressive stress in the piezoelectric layers and resulting in voltage output. In addition, a numerical evaluation was conducted on the effects of various system parameters on the vibration amplitude and frequency of self-oscillation, and the amplitude voltage and power of the generation. Compared to traditional vibration energy harvesters, this LCE-based generator features a simple structure and autonomous control, operating without an external controller, making it highly applicable in energy harvesting, adaptive robotics, self-powered systems, and artificial intelligence.

Suggested Citation

  • Ge, Dali & Bao, Wu & Chen, Haiming & Li, Kai, 2025. "A liquid crystal elastomer-based generator using light-powered self-oscillations," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 199(P1).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:chsofr:v:199:y:2025:i:p1:s0960077925007039
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chaos.2025.116690
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960077925007039
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chaos.2025.116690?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:chsofr:v:199:y:2025:i:p1:s0960077925007039. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thayer, Thomas R. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/chaos-solitons-and-fractals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.