Electricity from Piezoelectric materials

Source: http://www.josepino.com/?electricity-from-piezoelectric   Tags: science projects circuits discover

The "piezoelectric" effect was discovered about 1880 by Jacques & Pierre (The Curie brothers). They found out that when a mechanical stress was applied on crystals such as tourmaline, topaz, quartz, Rochelle salt and cane sugar, - YES! cane sugar! - electrical charges appeared, and this voltage was proportional to the stress. That means, more force = more electricity. How much electricity??? let's find it!

To make a simple experiment, we need to get a piezoelectric. As sugar cane breaks easily and can be a little messy, we can get the piezoelectric speaker from a broken watch clock. Any alarm watch clock can be used.

Taken from http://www.josepino.com

Now, using a pen, pencil or marker, tap the piezoelectric surface and the LED will lit.

Some applications for this interesting effects are:

The piezoelectric effect occurs only in non conductive materials and are divided in 2 main groups: crystals and ceramics. The most well known material is quartz (SiO2) as this easily available. A simple way to generate electricity is using a Rijke Tube.

Do you know any other application for piezoelectric materials?

09/09/09 - 22:21:05 dro from michigan wrote: are you sure your numbers are right, 120ma seems kinda high?
did you apply constant pressure, or did you have to keep tapping it to generate electricity?
09/09/09 - 22:31:09 José Pino wrote: I had to tap the piezoelectric hard enough but not that hard to break it. It was only a spike with that voltage and current.
10/21/09 - 10:37:06 Palpandi.A from Madurai,Tamilnadu wrote: Is sugar crystal used as piezoelectric material to generate power? and how does it in practically? please send anything about it because i am doing project in this topic.My E_mail id:palpandi461@gmail.com
10/21/09 - 15:34:50 José Pino wrote: Sugar crystal used to generate power? No.  Can generate power? Yes.
Does it in practically? Not really. Sugar crystals are fragile, hard to get electricity using pressure as the crystal breaks easily.  The only practical way to get electricity from piezoelectric is using Quartz.
10/24/09 - 17:06:47 electronico from colombia wrote: por medio de los dibujos se ve como enciende el led al frotar el piezoelectrico, pero que se supone que hay que hacer para que la caña de azucar me genere electricidad?. gracias
11/09/09 - 21:08:19 José Pino wrote: De hecho, al dale golpecitos el LED enciende.  Los cristales formados por la caña de azucar son muy fragiles para poder obtener electricidad de ellos.
11/19/09 - 02:35:47 Ponchos from Oriz wrote: Hola Jose pino, me pregunto si estarias dispuesto a realizar un proyecto conmigo?
11/19/09 - 03:23:18 José Pino wrote: Eso depende del tipo de proyecto.  Principalmente sólo podría asesorar y dar ideas ya que por cuestiones de viajes y tiempo disponible, no me es muy posible porporcionar asistencia personal.

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