Passivation of zinc oxide nanowires for improved piezoelectric energy harvesting devices

Abstract

This paper evaluates the improvement in performance of ZnO nanowires energy harvesters using p-type copper thiocyanate (CuSCN) passivation. Two types of p-n junction based devices: ZnO/PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate)) and ZnO/CuSCN/PEDOT:PSS were fabricated. It was observed that, the passivation of nanowires using CuSCN improved the performance four times, yielding a peak power density of 303 μWcm-2 for a load of 3.54 kΩ. The results were supported by impedance analysis of each device and it was observed that the piezoelectric voltage output of the device depends on its RC time constant. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.