Power generating characteristics of zinc oxide nanorods grown on a flexible substrate by a hydrothermal method

This paper describes the power generating property of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods on a flexible polyethersulfone (PES) substrate. The piezoelectric currents generated by the ZnO nanorods were measured when bending the ZnO nanorod by using I-AFM, and the measured piezoelectric currents ranged from 60 to 100 pA. When the PtIr coated tip bends a ZnO nanorod, piezoelectrical asymmetric potential is created on the nanorod surface. The Schottky barrier at the ZnO-metal interface accumulates elecntrons and then release very quickly generating the currents when the tip moves from tensile to compressed part of ZnO nanorod. These ZnO nanorods were grown almost vertically with the length of 300-500 nm and the diameter of 30-60 nm on the Ag/Ti/PES substrate at 90°C for 6 hours by hydrothermal method. The metal-semiconductor interface property was evaluated by using a HP 4145B Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer and the piezoelectric effect of the ZnO nanorods were evaluated by using an I-AFM. From the measured I- V characteristics, it was observed that ZnO-Ag and ZnO-Au metal-semiconductor interfaces showed an ohmic and a Schottky contact characteristics, respectively. ANSYS finite element simulation was performed in order to understand the power generation mechanism of the ZnO nanorods under applied external stress theoretically.