Small-displacement mechanical energy harvesting through magnetic phase transition materials

Zhengming Zhang; Tongtong Zhou; Yong Hu; Hongchang Wang; Chenyu Zhang; Xucai Kan; Kun Xu; Bo Yang; Yongle Li; Pengyu Zhao; Zuhua Chen; Pengtao Cheng; Hanghang Fu; Zhe Li; Chengliang Zhang; Dunhui Wang

doi:10.59717/j.xinn-energy.2025.100098

The Innovation Energy > 2025 Vol. 2 > No. 3 > 100098

Next Article Previous Article

REPORT Open Access

Cite PDF

Small-displacement mechanical energy harvesting through magnetic phase transition materials

1.
Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China
2.
College of Sciences and Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, 110819, China
3.
Engineering Technology Research Center of Magnetic Materials, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China
4.
School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Qujing Normal University, Qujing 655011, China
5.
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
6.
Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
7.
These authors contributed equally to this work.

Show all affliationsShow less

More Information

Corresponding authors: clzhang@hdu.edu.cn(C. Z.); wangdh@hdu.edu.cn(D.W.)
Received Date: January 16, 2025

Accepted Date: April 22, 2025

Published Online: July 14, 2025

The Innovation Energy 2(3), https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-energy.2025.100098 | Cite this article

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

DownLoad: Full size image

PUBLIC SUMMARY

PUBLIC SUMMARY
1. Innovative low-displacement mechanical energy harvesting using piezomagnetic effects.
  
  MnCoSi_0.88Ge_0.12 exhibits excellent piezomagnetic properties over a broad temperature range.
  
  Prototype device achieves 34.4 μW/cm³ power density with no moving parts.
  
  Effective energy harvesting from small-displacement vibrations and impacts.
  
  Potential for self-powered sensor networks in harsh, unattended environments.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

Our daily environment contains abundant vibrational and impact energies characterized by high instantaneous stress yet minimal displacement. These inherent characteristics present fundamental conversion challenges for traditional generators, which require substantial relative motion between magnetic and conductive components to induce effective current generation. To address this limitation, we propose an innovative method of low-displacement mechanical energy harvesting that utilizes piezomagnetic effects during pressure-induced magnetic phase transitions. By doping germanium into the silicon site of MnCoSi, the magnetic phase transition material MnCoSi_0.88Ge_0.12 exhibits excellent piezomagnetic properties over a broad temperature range. Our meticulously designed piezomagnetic power prototype device features a magnetic circuit that enhances magnetic flux within the induction coil. Using MnCoSi_0.88Ge_0.12 as the working substance, the prototype is rigorously tested under various temperatures and pressures, exhibiting intriguing performance from 250 to 325 K, covering room temperature. Notably, the prototype device, which is devoid of moving parts, has achieved a peak power density of 34.4 μW/cm³. The device's ability to harvest energy from small-displacement vibrations and instantaneous impacts, such as those from heavy machinery or geological activities, highlights its potential for applications in mobile energy supply. This work also provides a path toward self-powered vibration and impact sensor networks in harsh and unattended environments.
- magnetic phase transition /
- MnCoSi-based alloys /
- piezomagnetic material /
- energy harvesting

FullText(HTML)

REFERENCES

[1]	Yang Q., Shen J., Xu R., et al. (2025). Toward sustainable lunar base development: Comprehensive space environment platform. Innov. Energy 2:100076. DOI:10.59717/j.xinn-energy.2025.100076 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[2]	Wang Q., Dan Y., Riffat S., et al. (2024). Harvesting energy from the sun and space: A versatile collector for simultaneous production of electricity, heat, and cold energy. Innov. Energy 1:100013. DOI:10.59717/j.xinn-energy.2024.100013 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[3]	Yin Y., Lin S., Xu Z., et al. (2024). Giant-thermopower ionogels for multifunctional energy harvesting through molecularly selective ionic pairing and hydrogen bonding. Innov. Energy 1:100048. DOI:10.59717/j.xinn-energy.2024.100048 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[4]	Roga S., Bardhan S., Kumar Y., et al. (2022). Recent technology and challenges of wind energy generation: A review. Sustain. Energy Techn. 52:102239. DOI:10.1016/j.seta.2022.102239 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[5]	Champier D. (2017). Thermoelectric generators: A review of applications. Energy Convers. Manage. 140:167−181. DOI:10.1016/j.enconman.2017.02.070 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[6]	Sezer N. and Koç M. (2021). A comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art of piezoelectric energy harvesting. Nano Energy 80:105567. DOI:10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.105567 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[7]	Sharma S., Kiran R., Azad P., et al. (2022). A review of piezoelectric energy harvesting tiles: Available designs and future perspective. Energy Convers. Manage. 254:115272. DOI:10.1016/j.enconman.2022.115272 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[8]	Amer T. S., Bahnasy T. A., Abosheiaha H. F., et al. (2025). The stability analysis of a dynamical system equipped with a piezoelectric energy harvester device near resonance. J. low freq. noise V. A. 44:382−410. DOI:10.1177/14613484241277308 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[9]	Amer T. S., Abdelhfeez S. A., Elbaz R. F., et al. (2025). Investigation of the Dynamical Analysis, Stability, and Bifurcation for a Connected Damped Oscillator with a Piezoelectric Harvester. J. Vib. Eng. Technol 13:155. DOI:10.1007/s42417-024-01641-4 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[10]	Patil D. R., Lee S., Thakre A., et al. (2023). Obtaining a broadband magneto-mechano-electric generator with large power for IoT operation. J. Mater. Chem. A 11:15219−15226. DOI:10.1039/D3TA01587D View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[11]	Patil D. R., Lee S., Thakre A., et al. (2023). Boosting the energy harvesting performance of cantilever structured magneto-mechano-electric generator by controlling magnetic flux intensity on magnet proof mass. J. Materiomics 9:735−744. DOI:10.1016/j.jmat.2023.02.001 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[12]	Park S. H., Kumar A., Kaarthik J., et al. (2020). A Magneto-Mechano-Electric Generator Based on Lead-Free Single-Crystal Fibers for Robust Scavenging of Ambient Magnetic Energy. Electron. Mater. Lett. 16:369−375. DOI:10.1007/s13391-020-00215-2 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[13]	Kumar A., Park S. H., Patil D. R., et al. (2022). Effect of aspect ratio of piezoelectric constituents on the energy harvesting performance of magneto-mechano-electric generators. Energy 239:122078. DOI:10.1016/j.energy.2021.122078 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[14]	Deng Z. and Dapino M. J. (2018). Review of magnetostrictive materials for structural vibration control. Smart. Mater. Struct 27:113001. DOI:10.1088/1361-665x/aadff5 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[15]	Gong J.-H., Zhang Z.-M., Zhang C.-L., et al. (2024). Optimizing magnetoelastic properties by machine learning and high-throughput micromagnetic simulation. Rare Met. 43:2251−2262. DOI:10.1007/s12598-023-02551-2 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[16]	Gong J., Zhang Z., Wang H., et al. (2024). A magnetoelastic effect-guided design for micro stress/strain detector using deep learning. IEEE Sens. J. 24:4350−4355. DOI:10.1109/JSEN.2023.3347853 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[17]	Li X., Yang W., Li C., et al. (2024). Flexible solid-solid phase change material with zero leakage via in-situ preparation for battery thermal management. Innov. Energy 1:100034. DOI:10.59717/j.xinn-energy.2024.100034 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[18]	Kitanovski A. (2020). Energy Applications of Magnetocaloric Materials. Adv. Energy Mater. 10:1903741. DOI:10.1002/aenm.201903741 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[19]	Franco V., Blázquez J. S., Ipus J. J., et al. (2018). Magnetocaloric effect: from materials research to refrigeration devices. Prog. Mater. Sci. 93:112−232. DOI:10.1016/j.pmatsci.2017.10.005 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[20]	Li B., Kawakita Y., Ohira-Kawamura S., et al. (2019). Colossal barocaloric effects in plastic crystals. Nature 567:506−510. DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1042-5 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[21]	Lloveras P., Aznar A., Barrio M., et al. (2019). Colossal barocaloric effects near room temperature in plastic crystals of neopentylglycol. Nat. Commun. 10:1803. DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-09730-9 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[22]	Zhang C., Wang D., Qian S., et al. (2022). Giant barocaloric effects with a wide refrigeration temperature range in ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers. Mater. Horiz. 9:1293−1298. DOI:10.1039/D1MH01920A View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[23]	Qian S., Geng Y., Wang Y., et al. (2016). A review of elastocaloric cooling: Materials, cycles and system integrations. Int. J. Refrig. 64:1−19. DOI:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2015.12.001 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[24]	Moya X., Kar-Narayan S. and Mathur N. D. (2014). Caloric materials near ferroic phase transitions. Nat. Mater. 13:439−450. DOI:10.1038/nmat3951 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[25]	Zhang Z., Li K., Lin S., et al. (2023). Thermal batteries based on inverse barocaloric effects. Sci. Adv. 9:eadd0374. DOI:10.1126/sciadv.add0374 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[26]	Ma Z., Chen H., Liu X., et al. (2021). Thermomagnetic generation performance of Gd and La(Fe, Si)₁₃H_y/In material for low-grade waste heat recovery. Adv. Sustainable Syst. 5:2000234. DOI:10.1002/adsu.202000234 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[27]	Chen H., Ma Z., Liu X., et al. (2022). Evaluation of thermomagnetic generation performance of classic magnetocaloric materials for harvesting low-grade waste heat. Appl. Energy 306:117999. DOI:10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117999 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[28]	Liu X., Chen H., Huang J., et al. (2023). High-performance thermomagnetic generator controlled by a magnetocaloric switch. Nat. Commun. 14:4811. DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-40634-x View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[29]	Chen H., Liu X., Liu Y., et al. (2024). Excellent thermomagnetic power generation for harvesting waste heat via a second-order ferromagnetic transition. Mater. Horiz. 11:2603−2614. DOI:10.1039/D3MH02225K View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[30]	Seung Choi H., Hur S., Kumar A., et al. (2023). Continuous pyroelectric energy generation with cyclic magnetic phase transition for low-grade thermal energy harvesting. Appl. Energy 344:121271. DOI:10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121271 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[31]	Chun J., Kishore R. A., Kumar P., et al. (2018). Self-powered temperature-mapping sensors based on thermo-magneto-electric generator. ACS Appl. Mater. Inter. 10:10796−10803. DOI:10.1021/acsami.7b17686 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[32]	Chun J., Song H.-C., Kang M.-G., et al. (2017). Thermo-magneto-electric generator arrays for active heat recovery system. Sci. Rep. 7:41383. DOI:10.1038/srep41383 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[33]	Barcza A., Gercsi Z., Knight K. S., et al. (2010). Giant magnetoelastic coupling in a metallic helical metamagnet. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104:247202. DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.247202 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[34]	Hao X., Yang B., Li J., et al. (2023). Achieving a linear magnetostrictive effect in textured MnCoSiGe alloys. Acta Mater. 242:118486. DOI:10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118486 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[35]	Zhao Q.-Z., Tian F.-H., Kong S., et al. (2025). Magnetism-structure triple point morphotropic phase boundary and resulting W-type magnetostrictive effect in Ni₅₀Mn₃₄Sb_16−xGa_x Heusler alloys. Rare Met. 44:1905−1916. DOI:10.1007/s12598-024-03116-7 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[36]	Shi K., Sun Y., Yan J., et al. (2016). Baromagnetic effect in antiperovskite Mn₃Ga_0.95N_0.94 by neutron powder diffraction analysis. Adv. Mater. 28:3761-3767. DOI:10.1002/adma.201600310. View in Article Google Scholar
[37]	Shen F., Zhou H., Hu F., et al. (2021). A distinct spin structure and giant baromagnetic effect in MnNiGe compounds with Fe-doping. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143:6798−6804. DOI:10.1021/jacs.1c02694 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[38]	Foerster M., Macià F., Statuto N., et al. (2017). Direct imaging of delayed magneto-dynamic modes induced by surface acoustic waves. Nat. Commun. 8:407. DOI:10.1038/s41467-017-00456-0 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[39]	Wang H., Zhang Z., Gong J., et al. (2024). Strain-controlled switching of magnetic skyrmioniums in ultrathin nanodisks. Appl. Phys. Lett 125:162402. DOI:10.1063/5.0231123 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[40]	Liu J., Si Y., Gong Y., et al. (2017). Enhanced magnetic refrigeration performance in metamagnetic MnCoSi alloy by high-pressure annealing. J. Alloy. Compd. 701:858−863. DOI:10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.01.161 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[41]	Liu Y., Xu Z., Qiao K., et al. (2021). Strengthened caloric effect in MnCoSi under combined applications of magnetic field and hydrostatic pressure. J. Mater. Sci 56:20060−20070. DOI:10.1007/s10853-021-06546-1 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[42]	Barcza A., Gercsi Z., Michor H., et al. (2013). Magnetoelastic coupling and competing entropy changes in substituted CoMnSi metamagnets. Phys. Rev. B 87:064410. DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.87.064410 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[43]	Sandeman K. G., Daou R., Özcan S., et al. (2006). Negative magnetocaloric effect from highly sensitive metamagnetism in CoMnSi_1−xGe_x. Phys. Rev. B 74:224436. DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.74.224436 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[44]	Zavorotnev Y. D., Medvedeva L. I., Todris B. M., et al. (2011). Behavior of antiferromagnetic MnCoSi in a magnetic field under pressure. J. Magn. Magn. Mater 323:2808−2812. DOI:10.1016/j.jmmm.2011.06.019 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[45]	Yang Z., Erturk A. and Zu J. (2017). On the efficiency of piezoelectric energy harvesters. Extreme Mech. Lett. 15:26−37. DOI:10.1016/j.eml.2017.05.002 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar
[46]	Hur S., Kim S., Kim H.-S., et al. (2023). Low-grade waste heat recovery scenarios: Pyroelectric, thermomagnetic, and thermogalvanic thermal energy harvesting. Nano Energy 114:108596. DOI:10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108596 View in Article CrossRef Google Scholar

Cited by

ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

Cite this article:

Zhang Z., Zhou T., Hu Y., et al. (2025). Small-displacement mechanical energy harvesting through magnetic phase transition materials. The Innovation Energy 2:100098. https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-energy.2025.100098

Zhang Z., Zhou T., Hu Y., et al. (2025). Small-displacement mechanical energy harvesting through magnetic phase transition materials. The Innovation Energy 2:100098. https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-energy.2025.100098

Welcome!

To request copyright permission to republish or share portions of our works, please visit Copyright Clearance Center's (CCC) Marketplace website at marketplace.copyright.com.

Standard PDF

Extended PDF

Figures(5)

Supplementary Information

download_supplementary
video

Article Metrics

Article views(4322) PDF downloads(1715)

Small-displacement mechanical energy harvesting through magnetic phase transition materials

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

PUBLIC SUMMARY

ABSTRACT