Piezoelectric nanogenerator based on zinc oxide nanorods grown on textile cotton fabric

This investigation explores piezoelectricity generation from ZnO nanorods, which were grown on silver coated textile cotton fabrics using the low temperature aqueous chemical growth method. The morphology and crystal structure studies were carried out by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopic and high resolution transmission electron microscopic techniques, respectively. ZnO nanorods were highly dense, well aligned, uniform in spatial distribution and exhibited good crystal quality. The generation of piezoelectricity from fabricated ZnO nanorods grown on textile cotton fabrics was measured using contact mode atomic force microscopy. The average output voltage generated from ZnO nanorods was measured to be around 9.5 mV. This investigation is an important achievement regarding the piezoelectricity generation on textile cotton fabric substrate. The fabrication of this device provides an alternative approach for a flexible substrate to develop devices for energy harvesting and optoelectronic technology on textiles. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4766921]