RMCybernetics - Electric Minerals

Piezoelectricity

Charge separation between opposite faces of a crystal occurs when it is stressed. This is due to the regular atomic structure within the crystal. The effect also works in reverse, therefore applying a potential difference to the opposing faces will cause the crystal to expand or contract, depending upon the polarity.

Charge Seperation in a piezoelectric material

The most commonly known piezoelectric material is Quartz (SiO2). Many other important minerals are often found within quartz deposits. Tiny pieces of quartz are used in watches, clocks and radio transceivers to provide a stable and precise frequency for the circuitry. Piezoelectric lighters use a spring loaded hammer to strike a small crystal which will produce a high voltage spark.

The diagram on the left shows how some of the charge becomes seperated in a piezoelectric material when stressed. The effect of applying a voltage to deform the crystal is not always parralel like shown here. The effect depends on the crystal stucture and sometimes the deformation can sheer or be at different angles compared to the electric field.

Pyroelectricity

The pyroelectric effect occurs in certain materials when they are uniformly heated or cooled. This effect is directly related to the piezoelectric effect, as the charge separation occurs when the material expands or contracts due to a change in temperature. This effect is non reversible, therefore applying a potential difference to the material will not cause it to change temperature significantly.

Tourmaline is a mineral made from a mixture of substances (Na(Mg,Fe,Li,Al,Mn)3Al6(BO3)3O18(OH,F)4). It is a naturally occurring mineral, which can generate an electric field when it is heated or cooled. Natural crystal formations of Tourmaline can show a variety of colours and forms. Red Tourmaline was discovered to hold electric properties when ash particles were attracted and repelled by pieces in a fire.

Thermoelectricity

The Thermoelectric effect is used to generate a low voltage rather than a high voltage, as many stages would be required, making it impractical. This effect occurs when the junction of two dissimilar materials is heated. This arrangement is often referred to as a Thermocouple. Using differently doped pieces of silicon it is possible to produce a device known as a Peltier heat pump.

This effect also works in reverse and is known as the Seebeck or Peltier effect. When a voltage is applied to the junction heat is 'moved' in one direction therefore cooling on side and heating the other.

This device allows heat to be moved electronically from one place to another, even against the temperature gradient (from cold to hot). Simply connecting a Peltier device to a DC voltage will cause one side to freeze, whilst the other side heats up. The effectiveness of the pump at moving the heat away from the cold side is totally dependent upon how well you can remove the heat from the hot side. This device can also be used to generate electricity if a temperature difference is maintained between the two sides.

DIY Dehumidifier Using the Thermoelectric Effect

This device utilizes the cooling effect of peltier heat pumps in order to extract water from the air. The device was used in a damp basement and could collect about 500ml per day. The erratic wiring in the image make this device appear much more complex than it really is. There are a large number of wires because several different sized heat pumps were used, and each requires a different voltage. The six fans all ran from 12 volts. To provide the various voltages to the device a standard 500W ATX PC power supply was used. This type of PSU can be very useful for various experiments as they can provide a range of voltages simultaneously with a reasonable power output, and they are also overload protected.

Read more in the DIY Devices section

Questions and Comments on the Electric Minerals

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The information provided here can not be guaranteed as accurate or correct. Always check with an alternate source before following any suggestions made here.

polenski

Thursday, 9th November 2006 5:23am - No.460

Nice page...can make it more graphical though.

Norway-jimi

Thursday, 9th November 2006 5:59pm - No.461

Thanks fir info, kepp the site up :)

goolim

Friday, 10th November 2006 2:59pm - No.464

how much energy can be preduced by hiting a crystal with a small hamer?, if you can get back to me by email that will be great.
thank you,
goolim
email:goolim@hotmail.com

RMCybernetics

Saturday, 11th November 2006 1:59am - No.465

The electrical energy you get out will be proportional to the kinetic energy applied to the crystal when it is hit.
No energy is created by the crystal, It meerly converts some kinetic energy into electrical energy.

james

Friday, 5th January 2007 3:25am - No.680

is there a way to use quartz to produce enough electricity to power a home and what would it take if it is?

RMCybernetics

Friday, 5th January 2007 10:05am - No.682

I suppose in theory it would be possible, but it would be quite pointless. A quartz crystal just converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. This means you would need to have something that was repeatedly compressing and stretching the crystal. I think that not only would it be very expensive it would be inpractaical to set up.

The closest application to this that is used may be the piezoelectric transformer. This just alters the voltage and current of an alternating current that is applied the input.

Curtis Adkins

Sunday, 21st January 2007 8:13pm - No.716

Gentlemen,
Can a piece of quartz release electrical energy with a constant pressure applied rather than being struck with a hammer? If so, How can the energy be claimed and channeled for practical use?

RMCybernetics

Sunday, 21st January 2007 11:04pm - No.717

No, the electrical output is proportional to the rate of change of force. This means that voltage only appears when the force on it is changing.

Practical use of this is found generally in piezoelectric ignition, or piezo transformers.

Devin O'Neill

Wednesday, 31st January 2007 4:53pm - No.727

I have been looking around and have yet to find a satisfactory explanation of why this effect occurs. What is it about the nature of the lattice structure that causes the release of e- upon stress?

RMCybernetics

Friday, 2nd February 2007 2:42pm - No.734

I don't know this answer for sure, but I'll give you my best guess. If I find a better explination I'll post it below.

In a piezoelectric crystal (not under dynamic sterss), the charge is distibuted evenly throughout.
When a force is applied to the material the outer electrons will be displaced slightly more than the nucleus of the atoms. The specific stucture of the material will determine the angle at which the displacmet occurs. In the case of Quartz, the displacement is parallel to the force. The uneven displacement of charge makes the material polarized (has + and - ends) which effectivley induces charge on the surface of the crystal. The crystal is non conductive so it allows the charges to remain seperated. The effect only occurs when the stress is changing because the charge will naturally redistribute its self to it lowest energy level.

This does not quite apply in reverse because you can apply a steady voltage to the crystal which will produce a steady deformation of the crystal material. This is because the non conductive nature of the material allows the applied voltage to remain high between its surfaces.

I hope that helps, feel free to ask more.

Synaptic Axon

Thursday, 8th February 2007 11:09am - No.748

It seems to me that the tidal forces of the moon that act upon our oceans would provide a changing pressure gradient to act upon crystals. Not necessarily the gravitational force itself but the pressure of the volume of water. If crystals were attached at fixed distances on a long rod and submerged, a pressure gradient would exist along it's height and generate a burst of electricity. One would also expect temperature gradients that sterling engines exploit. Rotation of this crystal rod around a central axis, either from the ocean currents or actuators would change the stresses on the crystals which should create more electricity, right?

Where do these electrons come from? Wouldn't the effect of this on a grand scale cause the reduction of important biochemicals in the oceans of Earth?

One could also exploit this using gravity and the head (or pressure) generated by the fall of a fluid in the gravitational field. If the water is transported to the higher point through a free cycle (such as evaporation->precipitation) and can be recaptured at the higher point, energy could be extracted.

What effects does this piezoelectric effect have in nature? Does this explain the abundance of precious metals in crystal deposits? Gold is reknown for it's affinity to quartz and I can now picture some kind of natural electroplating occurring from minute quantities of gold in solution when astronomical tidal forces and plate tectonic movement charge the crystals and precipitate out metals. This would electroplate the crystals over time and also provide energy for other mineral formation requiring oxidized ions.

Just my thoughts.. could be misunderstanding things.

RMCybernetics

Thursday, 8th February 2007 2:31pm - No.749

Yes. I would expext that tidal and pressure chnges will create small electrical changes in crystals. One particularly large source of natural piezoelelectric activity would be plate tectonics. Tremendous forces and huge volumes of material would allow for the rise of very complex elecromagnetic fields. The field would be quite complex because of the random arangement of crystals of different types and orientation near a fault line.

Electrons are not released form the crystal, they simply get displaced relative to the atomic nuclei. This change in electric field can induce electrical currents in nearby conductors.
I'm not sure how this effects biochemicals in the ocean, but I suppose the electric fields could cause some migration or dissasociation of dissolved ions in sea water.

Hydroelectric power plants are allready exploiting the free cycle. The dams provide a method for controling how much water falls under the influence of gravity. The sun then does all the work to put the water back up in the sky.

I think that the metals found crystal deposits are more a product of relative density of liquids. Piezo electricity is usually expressed in an AC form because a force is normally brief, and the relxing crystal will then produce a dipole of opposite polarity. For electoplating / electrolysis to occur, there would need to be a force that constantly increases or decreases over a long period. I'm not saying it's not possible though, I'm sure piezoelectricity does have all kinds of effects on the earth, but they are usually overwhelmed by other more noticable effects.

Roeland

Thursday, 8th February 2007 9:05pm - No.750

I don't think the rate of change of force (dF/dt) is high enough when looking at tidal forces or plate tectonics. Though the forces working for example in a subduction zone are very large(hundreds of Mpa, effective stress that is), the rate of change of force needed to create observable electromagnetic fields only results from rock failure (earthquakes). A strong source for these fields is the Wadatti-Benioff zone.

Synaptic Axon

Thursday, 8th February 2007 11:25pm - No.752

Thanks for the responses. Good food for thought and a nice site overall.

a_nomad

Saturday, 24th February 2007 8:18pm - No.807

If a repeatable mechanical force application can be arranged, how much crystal versus how much force would be needed to power the average home for a day? Have I left too many variables to answer? Let me know and I'll elaborate.

RMCybernetics

Sunday, 25th February 2007 12:40am - No.808

It would depend on a lot of factors, but if you wanted 1kW of electrical power you would need at least 1kW of mechanical power driving the crystal. The crystal ould need to be large enough to withstand this kind of force.

yasmin

Tuesday, 24th April 2007 1:08am - No.1193

this iz great for my science project

peace out

Scott

Sunday, 20th May 2007 7:08am - No.1314

is there a way to figure out how long a crystal would last, if it was put under a persistent dynamic stress, before it is "unuseable" a.k.a. the power output was much less then originally created, say 10% of original energy output? is there a formula that could figure it out, say quartz as an example?

i'm curious how hard it would be to put a type of piezoelectric "mat" in a commonly used area of the house to see how much electricity could be generated from simle things like walking to the fridge, and to see what it would take to run different household appliances. I know it is impractical to do so I am just very curious about piezoelectricity and would like to set up some experiments and calculations of my own.

i was also curious where to get equipment to set up a piezoelectric experiment and roughly how much it costs.

thank you for your time,
~Scott

p.s. - sorry about any spelling errors i am very tired and realize my typing isn't the most accurate at the moment.

Scott

Sunday, 20th May 2007 7:15am - No.1315

where would I go to find out information on how to make my own piezoelectric devices?

RMCybernetics

Sunday, 20th May 2007 1:18pm - No.1318

I don't know about your first question. I think there would be a lot of variables do calculate.

The piezoelectric mat would be quite simple to produce. You could make one using a selection of piezo sounders/transducers linked up to some sort of battery or capacitor charger. You would then be able to power small devices from the charged battery/capcitor.
You can find info on purchasing piezo sounders on the DIY Cymatics page.

DustWolf

Tuesday, 29th May 2007 8:17pm - No.1354

What exactly is the efficiency of this conversion? E.g.: Would it be a good idea to make a piezoelectric generator, which converts some rotational force into electricity using quartz? Would the efficiency be comparable, or possibly better than the one of the electromagnetic generator?

stephen

Wednesday, 13th June 2007 4:31am - No.1390

piezoelectricity is one thing but em waves are received by quartz its harvesting it (if possible) and what about the constant vibrations of all matter? electrostatic? electromagnetic? im sure theres something to tap this.

what about quartz?

RMCybernetics

Wednesday, 13th June 2007 10:48am - No.1391

DustWolf:
The efficiency of electromagnetic generators is often around 98%. I don't think quartz would be comparable for converting knetic energy to electrical energy.
stephen:
It's all fundamentally electromagnetism. If you tap energy from some vibrating system then you will cause the vibrations do diminish.

Tammy

Friday, 11th July 2008 8:50pm - No.2898

Do they use the thermocouple in space?

I always seem to hear that in the sunlight objects in orbit get very hot but in the shade very cool. can they use this temperature difference to generate power? does the system need to be enclosed in a gas or fluid or can it work in a vacuum?

RMCybernetics

Friday, 11th July 2008 10:31pm - No.2900

Yes they are used in many applications. A thermocouple will work in gas, liquid or vacuum.

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