[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6527\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EEnergy all around us could power under-skin implants and sensors in aircrafts \u2013 Dr Gonzalo Murillo\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat are piezoelectric materials and how do they work?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Piezoelectric materials are commonly crystalline materials that can convert mechanical stress into electric fields. Basically when you press, release, or apply other mechanical forces on it, you can rearrange the charges inside the materials and generate an electric voltage.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018A good example is a lighter, when you press it you get a spark, this is also a piezoelectric material. You have a conversion of the mechanical energy into electricity.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhy are they interesting to us?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018In the near future we will have over a trillion sensors and electronic systems that will be capturing information, talking to each other, sending info to the cloud and computing everything. In order to have this big amount of sensors we need to get rid of batteries and have systems that don\u2019t need them. One of the main objectives of my research is to be able to power all these small smart sensors with piezoelectric materials.\u2019\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018One important source of mechanical energy is the human body.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Gonzalo Murillo, National Microelectronics Center of Spain\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYou discovered an innovative way to harness piezoelectric\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003Eenergy during the EU-funded SINERGY project, what was it?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I\u2019ve been working on piezoelectric materials for nine years and I did my PhD on this topic too. I studied different materials and different technologies, then for SINERGY I developed some nanostructures that can be used to harvest this energy (picking it up and storing it until it needs to be used). I used nanostructure materials like nano wires and nano plates, or nano flakes, of piezoelectric materials which are very small and thin so they become very flexible and are also very useful with tiny forces.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The good point with this technology is that it\u2019s compatible with microchips. In principle in the same chip you can have the electronics, the piezoelectric materials, and the storage.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat other uses could these energy-harvesting microchips have?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Another specific application is predictive maintenance, which is a concept where you can monitor machines through several parameters, like temperature or acceleration, and then predict or control when the machine is going to fail, before it actually fails. If you take a look at a graph of cost versus time of failure, you will see it increases exponentially and the maximum cost point is when it fails, but if you are able to detect when the machine is going to fail you can save a lot of money.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018You can also save money in aeroplanes, like the Airbus A380, you have around 6\u0026nbsp;000 sensors inside. Right now they are connected by kilometres of wires so the cost of the wiring of an aeroplane is really high. It seems now they are starting to work on wireless sensors for aircrafts and that\u2019s a good idea because you will get rid of cables. But you will still need to power the sensors and piezoelectric materials can help. Imagine having 1\u0026nbsp;000 sensors in an aeroplane and replacing batteries for each one.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong style=\u0022font-size: 13.008px;\u0022\u003EIt sounds as though there could be major applications for industry, but what impact could piezoelectric materials have on our day-to-day lives?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Other applications of piezoelectric materials, especially nanostructures, will be the impact on devices that you can have under your skin, because one important source of mechanical energy is the human body. Imagine devices that can deliver drugs into your body or a timer that can do a drug delivery without any sort of external systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018(Another) application is with the interaction between the electronics we have in our hands, like our cell phone or Google glasses, all these kind of devices we have now out of our body. The interaction could become closer, we could have all these materials closer to our bodies, for instance we might see a type of Bluetooth implant someday.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\u2019s next for your research?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We are trying to create a spinoff or start-up company, to transfer the knowledge from the research centres to a company. The main application where there is interest is with a gas utility company from Spain (who want to use piezoelectric sensors) to monitor the entire distribution network of gas and electricity. We can adapt our generators to monitor the fluxes of electricity and gas, to create smart grids or detect leakages. We can also get energy from here.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018In SINERGY, everything was focused on the development of silicon-compatible materials for the energy harvesting. I was in charge in all of the parts of this piezoelectric approach, but we had a special focus on these nanostructure materials. 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