MechSE entry named top poster out of 200

Researchers from the University of Illinois were awarded the P K Sarma award for the best paper (poster) at the ISHMT-ASME Heat and Mass Transfer Conference held at IIT Kharagpur, India.

The team, led by MechSE Professor William P. King, included his research group members Bikram Bhatia and Jangho Choi, former post-doc Hanna Cho, Professors David G. Cahill and Lane W. Martin from Materials Science and Engineering, and MatSE graduate student Karthik Jambunathan. The poster, titled “Energy Conversion from BaTiO3 Thin Films using the Pyroelectric Ericsson Cycle,” was chosen from more than 200 posters presented at the conference.

The biennial conference jointly organized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer included leading experts in the field of heat and mass transfer from across the world. 

The work presented by MechSE graduate student and first author Bhatia is the first demonstration of pyroelectric energy conversion from a nanometer thick film. The research utilized a microscale platform that allowed precise thermal and electrical control that allowed high frequency energy conversion using the pyroelectric Ericsson cycle resulting in power densities that are more than 100 times greater than previously reported using pyroelectric materials. This work holds promise for waste heat harvesting in internal combustion engines, power electronics, and modern semiconductor devices.