Testing and evaluation of different energy storage devices for piezoelectric energy harvesting under road conditions

The increasing needs in green technology have propelled the rapid development in energy conversion and the advancement of electric energy storage systems. A viable storage technology is needed to store intermittent electrical energy in different electronic applications. In this thesis, recent progress on the chemistry and design of batteries is summarized with their challenges and improvements. Along with that, electrolytic capacitors are also reviewed with their types, advantages and disadvantages of each in short. Super capacitors having higher surface area and thinner dielectrics than conventional capacitors along with hybrid capacitors, are discussed in detail. The potential of a hybrid capacitor, Ni(OH)2/ Active Carbon, compared with Ni-Cd batteries and electrolytic capacitors in the application of energy storage for high way energy harvesting has been explored in this work. Both the battery and the hybrid capacitor has been tested under various experimental conditions and their properties in relation to their chemical compositions are compared. The results obtained from the experiments have been analyzed and the most suitable energy storage devices have been selected with their application potential evaluated before drawing conclusion reported in this thesis.