Exploration of new Materials, Devices and Technologies for Energy Harvesting: the NANOFUNCTION Experience

The concurrent decrease of energy demanded by electronic systems with the increase of the energy stored and/or harvested by generation systems give the opportunity for novel approaches in a large amount of applications. Some of them already reached the market, however, the real limits of the issues should be carefully analyzed on a case-by-case basis. Energy harvesting entails conversion of ambient energy sources into usable energy and will become a critical technology for applications such wireless sensor networks, wireless security systems, in situ monitoring for mobile/moving systems, body area networks, biomedical devices, portable power generation for mobile electronics. This paper shows the recent results achieved by research groups within the NANOFUNCTION FP7 Network of Excellence working in the energyharvesting field. The collaboration provided advanced solutions in energy harvesting systems thanks to the interdisciplinary research performed at the level of materials, devices and architectures. The objective of the joint group is twofold: to investigate the potential of nano-materials and nano-devices capable to scale to micro- and nano-system level the energy harvesting and energy storage functions, and to devise innovative, integrated and efficient systems able to manage and deliver the harvested and stored energy.