3D core@multishell piezoelectric nanogenerators

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel 3D core@shell piezoelectric nanogenerator design combining organic nanowires with ZnO shells, achieving significantly higher output voltages and currents than traditional thin film or single-material nanogenerators.

Contribution

The study presents a new hybrid nanostructure with enhanced piezoelectric performance, integrating organic nanowires with ZnO shells and gold electrodes, surpassing existing nanogenerator efficiencies.

Findings

Output piezo-voltages up to 170 mV achieved.

Piezo-currents nearly twenty times larger than previous designs.

Superior performance compared to thin film nanogenerators.

Abstract

The thin film configuration presents obvious practical advantages over the 1D implementation in energy harvesting systems such as easily manufacturing and processing and long lasting and stable devices. However, most of the ZnO-based piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) reported so far relay in the exploitation of single-crystalline ZnO nanowires because their self-orientation in the c-axis and ability to accommodate long deformations resulting in a high piezoelectric performance. Herein, we show an innovative approach aiming to produce PENGs by combining polycrystalline ZnO layers fabricated at room temperature by plasma assisted deposition with supported small-molecule organic nanowires (ONWs) acting as 1D scaffold. The resulting hybrid nanostructure is formed by a single-crystalline organic nanowire conformally surrounded by a three dimensional (3D) ZnO shell that combines the mechanical properties of the organic core with the piezoelectric response of the ZnO layer. In a loop forward towards the integration of multiple functions within a single wire, we have also developed ONW@Au@ZnO nanowires including a gold shell acting as inner nanoscopic electrode. Thus, we have built and compare thin films and 3D core@shell ONW@ZnO and ONW@Au@ZnO PENGs showing output piezo-voltages up to 170 mV. The synergistic combination of functionalities in the ONW@Au@ZnO devices promotes an enhanced performance generating piezo-currents almost twenty times larger than the ONW@ZnO nanowires and superior to the thin film nanogenerators for equivalent and higher thicknesses.