Quantum mechanics

Electric light

Voltage

Engineering

Electromotive force

Elastomer

Materials science

Mechanical energy

Superposition principle

Power (physics)

Vibration

Acoustics

Energy transformation

Thermodynamics

Deflection (physics)

Physics

Optics

Composite material

Energy conversion efficiency

Liquid crystal

Mechanics

Light intensity

Optoelectronics

Electrical engineering

Cantilever

Energy

In this paper, a prototype of a light-electric mini-generator based on light sensitive liquid crystal elastomer cantilever is proposed. Firstly, the mechanism of this light-electric mini-generator is introduced. Then the governing equation of motion of the cantilever is established considering the light induced inhomogeneous strain distribution. By means of superposition method and Duhamel integral, the closed-form expressions for the vibration deflection, induced electromotive force and energy conversion efficiency are obtained. Numerical results show that the induced electromotive force and energy conversion ratio can be tuned by adjusting the light parameters and cantilever dimensions. The maximum voltage and conversion efficiency are in proportion to the light intensity, the contraction coefficient, the second power of thermal relaxation time and light decay distance ratio, but inversely proportional to the third power of damping factor. Based on the present material parameters, a maximum voltage up to 75.8 mV with a preferable energy conversion efficiency of 9.50 × 10−3% per magnetic induction intensity and circuit resistance can be achieved, which obviously could be greatly improved with the subtler design of cantilever and circuit materials.

A prototype for light-electric harvester based on light sensitive liquid crystal elastomer cantilever