Autonomous soil moisture sensor based on nanostructured thermosensitive resistors powered by an integrated thermoelectric generator

Dias, Pedro Carvalhaes; Cadavid, Doris; Ortega, Silvia; Ruiz, Alejandro; França, Maria Bernadete de Morais; Morais, Flávio José de Oliveira; Ferreira, Elnatan Chagas; Cabot, Andreu

doi:10.1016/j.sna.2016.01.022

Cited by 32 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…[421] Moreover, a double AuPtPd/SnO 2 and Pt/Al 2 O 3 catalyst [428] and Au/SnO 2 -Co 3 O 4 [429] (Figure 16b,c) on a micro-TE sensor was used for CO gas sensing; porous alumina-based sensors were developed for hydrocarbon; [430] dual-catalyzed Pd/θ-Al 2 O 3 and Pt/α-Al 2 O 3 system were able to detect H 2 and CH 4 , [431] which can be used in monitoring the combustion of fuel gas in industrial furnaces. [432,433] [432,433] …”

Section: Wwwadvancedsciencenewscommentioning

confidence: 99%

High Performance Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Their Applications

Yang

Chen

Dargusch

et al. 2017

Advanced Energy Materials

654

434

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Thermoelectric (TE) materials have the capability of converting heat into electricity, which can improve fuel efficiency, as well as providing robust alternative energy supply in multiple applications by collecting wasted heat, and therefore, assisting in finding new energy solutions. In order to construct high performance TE devices, superior TE materials have to be targeted via various strategies. The development of high performance TE devices can broaden the market of TE application and eventually boost the enthusiasm of TE material research. This review focuses on major novel strategies to achieve high‐performance TE materials and their applications. Manipulating the carrier concentration and band structures of materials are effective in optimizing the electrical transport properties, while nanostructure engineering and defect engineering can greatly reduce the thermal conductivity approaching the amorphous limit. Currently, TE devices are utilized to generate power in remote missions, solar–thermal systems, implantable or/wearable devices, the automotive industry, and many other fields; they are also serving as temperature sensors and controllers or even gas sensors. The future tendency is to synergistically optimize and integrate all the effective factors to further improve the TE performance, so that highly efficient TE materials and devices can be more beneficial to daily lives.

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Section: Wwwadvancedsciencenewscommentioning

confidence: 99%

High Performance Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Their Applications

Yang

Chen

Dargusch

et al. 2017

Advanced Energy Materials

654

434

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“…In particular, TEGs can harvest solar thermal energy using solar-flat panels and different configurations of the heat sink, including the use of a heat sink left at the ambient temperature, panels with dissipation phase changing materials (PCMs) in contact with the heat sink (as seen in the works of [11,12]), and TEGs with the heat sink buried in the soil [13]. Among the different configurations, the use of the soil as heat sink is particularly interesting as it allows harvesting energy during both day and night time and is significantly more economic than the use of PCMs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting Potential at Different Latitudes Using Solar Flat Panels Systems with Buried Heat Sink

2018

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Thermoelectric generators (TEG) can harvest solar energy during the day using solar flat panels. They can also benefit from the use of a material that stores solar energy to generate additional power at night, when the panel cools down and the energy stored in this material travels back, through the TEG. The soil can be used as the material that stores solar energy, but the performance of such systems, with the heat sink buried in the soil, depends on the ambient and the soil temperature, parameters which can change drastically with the latitude of the location where the TEG is installed. We present an experimental study with the comparison of the potential energy that can be collected from a TEG system with heat sink buried at different depths and at different latitudes: Campinas, Brazil − 22 ∘ 54 ′ 20 ′ ′ S; and Mataró, Catalonia, Spain − 41 ∘ 32 ′ 17 ′ ′ N. The potential of energy harvesting calculated during 32 winter days in Campinas is 72% of the total calculated during 205 days in Mataró. Experimental results obtained from a complete TEG system showed that in Campinas, during one day, it was possible to store 34.11 J of electrical energy in a supercapacitor. Notably, we demonstrate that the energy generated during the night by the heat stored into the soil can be as high as the energy generated during the day.

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“…The concept was first introduced in [10], and the shapes of heatsinks for heat exchange with the underground soil were compared in [24]. Recently, Dias et al implemented a prototype which is mainly composed of a large aluminum flat panel, aluminum heat conductor, TEG, and heatsink [6,7]. The aluminum flat panel with an area of 40 cm × 40 cm absorbs sunlight during the day and reaches, for example, 50 • C. The aluminum heat conductor with a dimension of 4 cm × 4 cm × 40 cm transfers thermal energy between the flat panel and the TEG buried down to a depth of 40 cm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil-Monitoring Sensor Powered by Temperature Difference between Air and Shallow Underground Soil

Ikeda

Shigeta

Shiomi

et al. 2020

Proc. ACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol.

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Energy harvesting (EH) technologies are useful for the semi-permanent operation of wireless sensor networks, especially, for agricultural monitoring as the networks need to be installed in large areas where power supply is unavailable. In this paper, we propose a battery-free soil-monitoring sensor for agriculture, which leverages the temperature difference between near-surface air and shallow underground soil using a thermoelectric generator (TEG). The performance of systems driven by the TEG mainly depends on the average temperature between the hot and cold sides of the TEG (T) and the temperature difference across the TEG (∆T). If T is low and ∆T is small, it is challenging to earn enough power to drive wireless microcontroller unit; however, with our dedicated electric circuit, and thermal designs including impedance matching of thermal circuit and suppression of heat loss, the sensor can harvest more than a hundred microwatt on average from the temperature difference between the air and underground soil at a depth of 30 cm. The performance of the energy harvester is evaluated both by numerical analysis using temperature data collected from various farm fields and by a prototype implementation. Moreover, the prototype was deployed to farm fields in Japan and India. Our field experiment results revealed that the prototype could harvest 100 µW-370 µW on average, and drive a wireless microcontroller unit to perform soil monitoring. CCS Concepts: • Hardware → Renewable energy; Sensor applications and deployments; • Human-centered computing → Ubiquitous and mobile computing systems and tools.

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Autonomous soil moisture sensor based on nanostructured thermosensitive resistors powered by an integrated thermoelectric generator

Cited by 32 publications

References 16 publications

High Performance Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Their Applications

High Performance Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Their Applications

Evaluation of the Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting Potential at Different Latitudes Using Solar Flat Panels Systems with Buried Heat Sink

Soil-Monitoring Sensor Powered by Temperature Difference between Air and Shallow Underground Soil

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