Two dimensional woven nanogenerator

Nanogenerator (MG) plays an important role in harvesting energy from the ambient environment. Here, we have developed a two dimensional woven nanogenerator (WNG), which imitates the textile's woven structure and is composed of two kinds of fibers crossing with each other, one kind of fibers grown with ZnO nanowires (NWs) and the other kind of fibers covered with the ZnO NWs coated with palladium (Pd) on their surface. Depending on the coupled piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of ZnO, it can generate electricity driven by the external tiny mechanical force such as tiny wind, sounds. The open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of the WNG were 3 mV and 17 pA, respectively. Furthermore, the WNG was successfully used to power a microfiber/ZnO NWs hybrid UV sensor to form a wearable self-powered system, which can quantitatively detect the intensity of UV light. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.