Abstract
High-quality single crystalline zinc oxide nanowires were grown on silver and gold coated plastic substrates for the fabrication of a sandwich-like nanogenerator using the aqueous chemical growth method. The applicability of this configuration as a nanogenerator is demonstrated by studying the harvested electrical output under mechanical deformation. Three different configurations were fabricated and utilized for harvesting piezoelectric potential by applying an external force. The maximum resulting output open circuit voltage and short circuit current were 2.4 V and 152.2 μA, respectively. The comparison between the different configurations indicates that more piezoelectric potential can be harvested by using two arrays of ZnO NWs placed face-to-face than by using a single nanowire configuration. In addition, the use of a piezoelectric polymer will enhance the amount of generated piezoelectric potential. The obtained results from different configurations of zinc oxide nanowire nanogenerators offer a cost-effective, flexible, long term stable nanogenerator for promising application. The principle of the sandwich nanogenerator demonstrated a new idea for novel self-powering nanotechnology that harvests electricity from the environment for applications such as portable electronics.
Highlights
Today, the research community is trying to introduce personal electronics devices with self-powering capability or renewable sources of energy
When the results of NGs on three different configurations, obtained by applying the same mechanical force, were compared, we found that the difference between the first (Figure 5 (a)–(b)) and second (Figure 5 (c)–(d)) configurations is that the output increased by 0.2 voltages when more Zinc oxide (ZnO) NWs were present in the NG
We have demonstrated a sandwich NG consisting of ZnO NWs grown on silver coated plastic substrates using the aqueous chemical growth method, which can be used in converting mechanical energy into electricity
Summary
The research community is trying to introduce personal electronics devices with self-powering capability or renewable sources of energy. The use of ZnO nanostructures with different nanogenerator (NG) configurations on different substrates has been studied with promising results Various techniques, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), nanoindentation and direct power/load using open and short circuits, have been utilized for harvesting piezoelectric potential from ZnO nanostructures based on NGs [11,12,13,14]. Lee et al reported an excellent investigation regarding the feasibility of hybridizing piezoelectric material; they utilized ZnO NWs and Poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) for harvesting piezoelectric potential, and fabricated a wearable nanogenerator. Different ZnO NWs based on sandwich-like NG configurations were fabricated to study the piezoelectric properties with and without the PVDF. Structural analysis of the grown ZnO NWs was executed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the analysis of crystalline quality and growth orientation was studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique
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