A simple and low-cost approach for the synthesis and fabrication of ZnO nanosheet-based nanogenerator for energy harvesting and sensing

Abstract

Reducing the cost of the synthesis process and device fabrication plays an essential role in modestly developing products. In the present report, a simple and low-cost approach for the synthesis of ZnO nanosheets and the fabrication of a piezoelectric nanogenerator is developed. The ZnO nanosheets are synthesized by hot plate assisted hydrothermal method and characterized for their morphology, crystallinity, composition. The fabricated nanogenerator device produced an open-circuit voltage of ∼220 mV upon finger tapping. The series connection of seven such devices produced an open-circuit voltage of ∼1.2 V. The ZnO nanosheets films synthesized at a growth temperature of 85 °C for a growth duration of 4 h are found to be optimum parameters for making the nanogenerator device with high output. The nanogenerator response is recorded for different frequencies of finger tapping and different finger-tapping pressures. Further, the fabricated nanogenerator exhibited a stable output response over 1100 cycles confirms the high durability of the fabricated device. The fabricated nanogenerator is explored further for pressure sensing application.