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Researchers at the University of Arkansas and the University of Michigan have reported the creation of a graphene-based energy harvester that uses ambient radiation to run ultralow-power temperature sensors. This is the second sensor created by the team whose overall goal is development of autonomous sensor systems that draw power from multiple sources in the environment—solar, thermal, acoustic, kinetic, nonlinear and ambient radiation. The findings are published in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B.

The team previously reported successful development of graphene-based solar cells that can be used to power temperature sensors.

The team has three requirements for these sensors: they must use locally harvested energy, they must have a long unattended service life (potentially decades) and they must be able to operate at nanowatt-scale power. All three requirements have been met in the latest sensor utilizing ambient radiation.

MD Rezaul Kabir, a Ph.D. candidate in the Materials Science and Engineering Program at the U of A, was first author on the paper, but graphene energy harvesters are the invention of U of A physics professor Paul Thibado, who began studying graphene's unique properties more than a decade ago and is the corresponding author.

Thibado noted that ambient radiation is everywhere in modern life, especially radiating from the electrical wiring of our homes (though the wires running through the walls could be better arranged to take advantage of this waste radiation).

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