Finite element method calculations of ZnO nanowires for nanogenerators

TL;DR

This paper uses finite element method simulations to analyze the electrical response of bent ZnO nanowires for nanogenerator applications, highlighting challenges in measuring the generated voltage due to low capacitance and semiconducting effects.

Contribution

It provides a finite element simulation study of ZnO nanowire bending and electrical potential generation, addressing measurement challenges in nanogenerator design.

Findings

Generated potential of 0.3 V from nanowire bending

Low capacitance limits voltage measurement

Semiconducting properties cause rapid voltage signal decay

Abstract

The bending of a nonconducting piezoelectric ZnO nanowire is simulated by finite element method calculations. The top part is bent by a lateral force, which could be applied by an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip. The generated electrical potential is 0.3 V. This relatively high signal is, however, difficult to measure, due to the low capacitance of the ZnO nanowire (4x10^{-5} pF) as compared to the capacitance of most preamplifiers (5 pF). A further problem arises from the semiconducting properties of experimentally fabricated ZnO nanowires which causes the disappearance of the voltage signal within picoseconds.