Devices for Energy Harvesting and Storage

The energy harvesting and storage seem to be the most important energy-related technologies in the XXI century. The increasing global energy consumption resulted in gained attention to development of renewable, sustainable, and green power sources which will be competitive to the traditional fossil fuels. The charge storage devices play a key role in driving the electronic devices. Since chalcohalide materials exhibit outstanding piezoelectric and electromechanical properties, they can be used in nanogenerators for mechanical energy harvesting as well as sensors for detection of low frequency vibrations and ultrasonic waves. In addition, the chalcohalides in the form of nanowires are expected to be more flexible and accommodate higher deformation in comparison to their two- or three-dimensional counterparts. This chapter presents a comprehensive review of the conversion of mechanical energy into the electric energy using piezoelectric and triboelectric nanogenerators based on the chalcohalide nanomaterials. Recent achievements in development of the pyroelectric nanogenerators for a waste heat recovery are also described. The applications of bismuth and antimony chalcohalides as electrode materials in the supercapacitors are summarized. The properties of low-dimensional chalcohalides are analyzed in respect to their further applications in hybrid devices for the multisource energy harvesting, charge storage and self-powered sensing of various stimuli, including a strain, stress, mechanical vibrations or thermal signals.