Energy Harvesting from the Obliquely Aligned InN Nanowire Array with a Surface Electron‐Accumulation Layer

Abstract

Piezoelectric materials such as ZnO and III-nitride are gaining increasing attention for their energy-related applications, including high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs), fullspectrum solar cells, and nanogenerators. Because of the inconvenience of using chemical batteries to power wireless sensors, harvesting energy from ambient mechanical movements in variable and uncontrollable environments is an effective method of powering wireless mobile electronics for a wide range of applications in everyday life. The operating principle of a nanowire-based nanogenerator involves the unique coupling of the piezoelectric and semiconducting properties and the gating effect of the Schottky barrier formed between metal tips and semiconductor nanomaterials. Consequently, nanogenerators convert mechanical energy from ambient movement into electricity that can be used to power nanodevices without batteries. Researchers have made great progress in developing piezoelectric nanogenerators based on II-VI compound semiconductor nanomaterials such as ZnO, [ 1 , 2 ] ZnS, [ 3 ] and CdS, [ 4 ] which have great potential for the integration of piezotronics and nanogenerators. Recent efforts to enhance nanogenerator effi ciency have focused on materials with higher piezoelectric coeffi cients, including poly(vinylidene fl uoride) (PVDF) nanofi bers, [ 5 ] BaTiO 3 thin fi lms, [ 6 ] and lead zirconate titanate (PZT) nanofi bers.

Fiber‐Based Wearable Electronics: A Review of Materials, Fabrication, Devices, and Applications

“…To utilize the direct piezoelectric effect, three major types of nanostructure piezoelectric materials have been investigated:(1) nano‐scaled semiconductor piezoelectric materials, including Zinc oxide, cadmium sulfide, zinc sulfide (ZnS), gallium nitride(GaN) and indium nitride; (2) perovskite structured piezoelectric nano‐sized materials, such as lead zirconate titanate(PZT), potassium niobate, sodium niobate and barium titanate; and (3) piezoelectric polymers, e.g. Polyvinylidene Fluoride(PVDF).…”

Direct Writing of Patterned, Lead‐Free Nanowire Aligned Flexible Piezoelectric Device

“…Nevertheless, most researchers manufacture PNGs by a commonly utilized spin coating method34, 35, 36, 37 which sets up obstacles for these PNGs to reach the requirement mentioned above, thus impairs their output performance. Currently, approaches such as electrospinning,38, 39 chemical epitaxial growth,40, 41 and template based lithography42, 43, 44 are developed to fabricate PNGs with aligned piezoelectric materials or patterned structures. However, these approaches are either complicated or confined to specific materials.…”

Surface diffusion controlled formation of high quality vertically aligned InN nanotubes

“…4 Substantial work has been devoted in studying their properties, 5,6 at the nanoscale, vis-a-vis the thin films. Among various morphologies of nitrides, nanotube has attracted great attention because of its potential application in different research fields, such as renewable energy, sensing, and biology, 7-9 mainly due to its large surface area and the capability of space charge separation and transportation.…”