Engineers at the University of Houston have used quantum mechanical calculations to show that by creating holes of a specific pattern in a sheet of graphene, they can make graphene behave like a piezoelectric material. Piezoelectric substances generate electricity in response to physical pressure, and vice versa, and scientists can use these materials for applications such as energy harvesting and artificial muscles, as well as to make precise sensors.
Graphene itself is not a piezoelectric material by nature, but the Houston engineers believe that if they took either a semiconducting or insulator form of graphene, punched triangle-shaped holes into it, and applied a uniform pressure to the material, they could make that material act as though it were piezoelectric.
Read more here:
http://www.energyharvestingjournal.com/articles/graphene-can-behave-like-a-piezoelectric-material-00004065.asp?sessionid=1
http://www.idtechex.com/research/reports/energy-harvesting-and-storage-for-electronic-devices-2011-2021-000270.asp
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