Piezoelectric nanogenerator with 3D-ZnO micro-thornyballs prepared by chemical vapour deposition

Piezoelectric nanogenerators have been intensively developed in terms of their materials and applications; however, only modest structural progress has been made due to limitations in the growth mechanisms of nanomaterials. In this work, a piezoelectric nanogenerator based on ZnO micro-thornyballs (ZMTBs) was introduced. ZMTBs were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition method without the presence of any seed layers or substrates. Electrical characterization was subsequently performed to reveal the characteristics of the contacts formed between the ZnO micro-thornyballs and the copper electrode. The electric output ability of the ZNTTs nanogenerators has been studied in reference to the experiment and the numerically calculation.