Mechanical and piezoelectric properties of zinc oxide nanorods grown on conductive textile fabric as an alternative substrate

The present research is devoted to understanding the mechanism and causes of variation in the piezoelectric potential generated from vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs), which were grown on a conductive textile fabric as an alternative substrate by using the aqueous chemical growth method. The piezoelectric voltage was harvested from vertically aligned ZnO NRs having different physical parameters by using atomic force microscopy in contact mode and the variation in the generated piezoelectricity was investigated. The generated output potential indicates that different physical parameters such aspect ratio, crystal size and lattice internal crystal strain have a strong influence on the piezoelectric properties of vertically aligned ZnO NRs, which were grown on a textile fabric. Presented results indicate that textiles can be used as an alternative substrate just like the other conventional substrates, because our results are similar/better than many reported works on conventional substrates.