Fabrication of Piezoelectric ZnO Nanowires Energy Harvester on Flexible Substrate Coated with Various Seed Layer
Taoufik Slimani Tlemcani1, Camille Justeau1, Kevin Nadaud1
1GREMAN UMR 7347, Université de Tours, CNRS, INSA Centre Val de Loire, 37071 Tours, France.
Abstract:
Flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) are very attractive for mechanical energy harvesting due to their high potential for realizing self-powered sensors and low-power electronics. In this paper, a PENG that is based on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NWs) is fabricated on flexible and transparent Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. The ZnO NWs were deposited on two different seed layer structures, i.e., gold (Au)/ZnO and tin-doped indium-oxide (ITO)/ZnO, using hydrothermal synthesis. Along with the structural and morphological analyses of ZnO NWs, the electrical characterization was also investigated for ZnO NWs-based flexible PENGs. In order to evaluate the suitability of the PENG device structure, the electrical output performance was studied. By applying a periodic mechanical force of 3 N, the ZnO NWs-based flexible PENG generated a maximum root mean square (RMS) voltage and average power of 2.7 V and 64 nW, respectively. Moreover, the comparison between the fabricated device performances shows that a higher electrical output can be obtained when ITO/ZnO seed layer structure is adopted. The proposed ZnO NWs-based PENG structure can provide a flexible and cost-effective device for supplying portable electronics.
