Natural rubber for sustainable high-power energy generation.

In this work, we show that natural rubber can be used to construct generators of high performance and low cost. Natural rubber has higher elastic modulus, fracture energy and dielectric strength than a commonly studied acrylic elastomer. We demonstrate high energy densities (369 mJ/g) and high power densities (200 mW/g), and estimate low levelized cost of electricity (5 - 11 ct/kWhr). Sustainable natural rubber for soft generators opens up new possibilities for harvesting renewable resources. With this technology, ocean wave energy could become a cheap and clean resource for generation of electricity.

Citation info.

Rainer Kaltseis, Christoph Keplinger, Soo Jin Adrian Koh, Richard Baumgartner, Yu Feng Goh, Wee Hoe Ng, Alexander Kogler, Andreas Trols, Choon Chiang Foo, Zhigang Suo, Siegfried Bauer. Natural rubber for sustainable high-power energy generation. RSC Advances. In press (2014).