Back Cover: Piezoelectric power generation from zinc oxide nanowires grown on paper substrate (Phys. Status Solidi RRL 2/2012)

Abstract

Intense world-wide research efforts have been devoted to the search for materials which significantly enhance the capability for the piezoelectric effect. Paper substrate with so many advantages over conventional substrates can be one of the low-cost alternates for piezoelectric applications. It offers a potential solution for powering various nanodevices and nanosystems. ZnO has the highest effective piezoelectric coefficient among II–IV tetrahedrally coordinated wurtzite compound semiconductors. The lack of a center of symmetry, combined with a large electromechanical coupling, results in strong piezoelectric property. Due to the high piezoelectricity coefficient and electromechanical coupling ZnO has attracted substantial research, and various novel applications have been demonstrated. In this issue, Soomro et al. (pp. 80–82) report the piezoelectric effect and generation of piezo potential of vertically aligned ZnO nanowires grown by the simple low temperature aqueous chemical growth (ACG) method on paper substrate by using atomic force microscopy.