High-Temperature Effective Piezoelectric Composites for Future Space Self-Powering Sensors

PI: Dr. Antoinette Galvin, University of New Hampshire Science PI: Dr Yan Li, Dartmouth College NASA MD: SMD and STMD Partner Center: NASA JPL Piezoelectric materials can transduce mechanical deformation to electrical signals and vice-versa. This reversible feature not only makes piezoelectric materials good sensors to monitor the health of an operating system, but also allows them to harvest energy for power generation when traditional battery charging is impossible/inadequate in remote locations. A fundamental challenge of implementing self-powering sensors in space application is the temperature limit of current piezoelectric materials, which usually experience significant performance drop around 120 °C and complete loss of functionalities above 250 °C. Development of high-temperature effective piezoelectric materials will provide new possibilities for NASA to monitor system stability and make preventive maintenance and troubleshooting even in harsh environments. The proposed topic aligns with NASA’s strategic objective in developing advanced materials for remote sensing and energy storage. Collaboration with JPL experts in piezoelectric device design will significantly increase the university-industry-government engagement for research, education, STEM workforce training and technology transfer. The central hypothesis of this research is that piezoceramic composites, which are processed by adding Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) as the filler to the preceramic polymers, can push the temperature limit of existing piezoelectric ceramic-polymer composites. Firstly, unlike conventional polymers which start rapid thermal degradation above 200 °C, preceramic polymers can be converted to ceramics upon heat treatment. The unique polymer-to-ceramic phase transition allows the final piezoceramic product to exhibit complex shapes and hierarchical architectures that are otherwise impossible to achieve through traditional ceramic processing routes. The phase transition process also provides great flexibility for property tailoring through careful control of processing parameters. Additionally, adding PZT as the filler to the preceramic polymer matrix not only alleviates the internal damage formation which results in energy loss due to friction and damping, but also significantly improves the thermal stability of the entire composites. Four research tasks will be carried out to understand how material selection, key processing parameters and microstructure/structure architecture design will influence the mechanical and piezoelectrical behavior of the PZT-PDC composites. 1). A multiscale computational framework will be developed to simulate the polymer-to-ceramic phase transition in the PZT-PDC composites under systematically varied PZT volume fractions and processing parameters; 2). A set of computational tools will be built for microstructure/structure architecture design, characterization, and implementation to the finite element model; 3). A coupled electromechanical model will be developed to evaluate the sensing and power harvesting capabilities of each PZT-PDC composite design; and 4). Model validation will be performed based on in-situ compression-piezoelectric test, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) analysis and existing experiment results. The proposed research will engage a collaborative network of faculty members, NASA JPL and DOE mentors, industry members, postdoc, graduate/undergraduate students to leverage the New Hampshire community knowledge in new piezoelectric material design, property prediction, manufacturing, and energy efficiency evaluation. If successful, the developed models, algorithms, and knowledge base from the research activities can be implemented into design decisions, which are not only important for new space material design and manufacturing, but also useful for training and educating a diverse future workforce in space engineering.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.