Enabling flexoelectric engineering through modeling and computation

Projektinformationen

FLEXOCOMP

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 679451

DOI 10.3030/679451

Abgeschlossenes Projekt

EK-Unterschriftsdatum 4 April 2016

Startdatum 1 September 2016

Enddatum 31 August 2022

Finanziert unter

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Gesamtkosten € 1 500 000,00

EU-Beitrag € 1 500 000,00

Koordiniert durch

UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA
Spain

Ziel

Piezoelectric materials transduce electrical voltage into mechanical strain and vice-versa, which makes them ubiquitous in sensors, actuators, and energy harvesting systems. Flexoelectricity is a related but different effect, by which electric polarization is coupled to strain gradients, i.e. it requires inhomogeneous deformation. Flexoelectricity is present in a much wider variety of materials, including non-polar dielectrics and polymers, but is only significant at small length-scales. Flexoelectricity has demonstrated its potential in information technologies, by flexoelectric-mediated mechanical writing in ferroelectric thin films at the nanoscale, or in flexoelectric electromechanical transducers. It has been suggested that flexoelectricity could enable piezoelectric composites made out of non-piezoelectric components, including soft materials, which could be used in biocompatible and self-powered small-scale devices. Flexoelectricity is a nascent field with major open questions. Furthermore, experimental devices and material designs are limited by what we can understand and analyze, and unfortunately, we lack general engineering analysis tools for flexoelectricity. As a result, current flexoelectric devices are only minimal variations of configurations conceived within the uniform-strain mindset of piezoelectricity. Our main objective in this proposal is to develop an advanced computational infrastructure to quantify flexoelectricity in solids, focusing on continuum models but also exploring multiscale aspects. We plan to use it to (1) analyze accurately flexoelectricity accounting for general geometries, electrode configurations, and material behavior, (2) identify new physics emerging flexoelectricity, and (3) propose, build and test a new generation of thin-film devices, composites and metamaterials for electromechanical transduction, genuinely designed to exploit small-scale flexoelectricity and make it available at macroscopic scales.

Wissenschaftliches Gebiet

• engineering and technology › materials engineering › composites
• engineering and technology › materials engineering › coating and films
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electronic engineering › sensors
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electrical engineering › piezoelectrics
• engineering and technology › environmental engineering › energy and fuels › energy conversion

Schlüsselbegriffe

• Flexoelectricity
• computational mechanics of materials
• multifunctional metamaterials
• electromechanical modeling of solids
• multiscale material modeling
• ferroelectric materials
• materials design

Programm/Programme

• H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme

Thema/Themen

• ERC-StG-2015 - ERC Starting Grant

Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung

ERC-2015-STG

Finanzierungsplan

ERC-STG - Starting Grant

Gastgebende Einrichtung

UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA

• Netto-EU-Beitrag: € 1 500 000,00
• Adresse: CALLE JORDI GIRONA 31 ; 08034 Barcelona ; Spanien
• Region: Este › Cataluña › Barcelona
• Aktivitätstyp: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Gesamtkosten: € 1 500 000,00

Begünstigte (1)

UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA

Spanien

• Netto-EU-Beitrag: € 1 500 000,00
• Adresse: CALLE JORDI GIRONA 31 ; 08034 Barcelona
• Region: Este › Cataluña › Barcelona
• Aktivitätstyp: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Gesamtkosten: € 1 500 000,00