Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering TOPICAL REVIEW Material strategies to enhance the performance of piezoelectric energy harvesters based on lead-free materials Ausrine Bartasyte8,1,2, Giacomo Clementi1,3, Quentin Micard1,4, Ishamol Labbaveettil1, Arthur Sousa Lopes Moreira1,5, Sondes Boujnah1, Merieme Ouhabaz1, Anjenya Verma6, Arun Ichangi6,7, Graziella Malandrino4Show full author list Published 30 March 2023 • © 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, Volume 33, Number 5 Citation Ausrine Bartasyte et al 2023 J. Micromech. Microeng. 33 053001 DOI 10.1088/1361-6439/acbfc0 References Open science Article metrics 368 Total downloads 11 citation on Dimensions. Submit Submit to this Journal MathJax Turn on MathJax Permissions Get permission to re-use this article Share this article Share this content via email Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Mendeley (opens new window) Article and author information Abstract Over the past four decades, energy microsources based on piezoelectric energy harvesting have been intensively studied for applications in autonomous sensor systems. The research is triggered by the request for replacing standard lead-based piezoelectric ceramics with environmentally friendly lead-free materials and potential deployment of energy-harvesting microsystems in internet of things, internet of health, 'place and leave' sensors in infrastructures and agriculture monitoring. Moreover, futher system miniaturization and co-integration of functions are required in line with a desired possibility to increase the harvested power density per material volume. Thus, further research efforts are necessary to develop more sustainable materials/systems with high-performance. This paper gives a comprehensive overview on the processing and functional testing the lead-free bulk materials and thin films and discusses their potential in the applications in the stress- and strain-driven piezoelectric energy harvesting. This includes the methodology of estimation of the substrate clamping and orientation/texture effects in the thin films, and identification of orientations offering high figure of merit. The ability to control film orientation of different lead-free materials is reviewed and the expected piezoelectric performances are compared with the ones reported in literature.