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Rovisco A, dos Santos A, Cramer T, Martins J, Branquinho R, Águas H, Fraboni B, Fortunato E, Martins R, Igreja R, Barquinha P. Piezoelectricity Enhancement of Nanogenerators Based on PDMS and ZnSnO 3 Nanowires through Microstructuration. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2020; 12:18421-18430. [PMID: 32195567 PMCID: PMC7508038 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b21636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2019] [Accepted: 03/20/2020] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
The current trend for smart, self-sustainable, and multifunctional technology demands for the development of energy harvesters based on widely available and environmentally friendly materials. In this context, ZnSnO3 nanostructures show promising potential because of their high polarization, which can be explored in piezoelectric devices. Nevertheless, a pure phase of ZnSnO3 is hard to achieve because of its metastability, and obtaining it in the form of nanowires is even more challenging. Although some groups have already reported the mixing of ZnSnO3 nanostructures with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to produce a nanogenerator, the resultant polymeric film is usually flat and does not take advantage of an enhanced piezoelectric contribution achieved through its microstructuration. Herein, a microstructured composite of nanowires synthesized by a seed-layer free hydrothermal route mixed with PDMS (ZnSnO3@PDMS) is proposed to produce nanogenerators. PFM measurements show a clear enhancement of d33 for single ZnSnO3 versus ZnO nanowires (23 ± 4 pm/V vs 9 ± 2 pm/V). The microstructuration introduced herein results in an enhancement of the piezoelectric effect of the ZnSnO3 nanowires, enabling nanogenerators with an output voltage, current, and instantaneous power density of 120 V, 13 μA, and 230 μW·cm-2, respectively. Even using an active area smaller than 1 cm2, the performance of this nanogenerator enables lighting up multiple LEDs and other small electronic devices, thus proving great potential for wearables and portable electronics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Rovisco
- i3N/CENIMAT, Department
of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Andreia dos Santos
- i3N/CENIMAT, Department
of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Tobias Cramer
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
| | - Jorge Martins
- i3N/CENIMAT, Department
of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Rita Branquinho
- i3N/CENIMAT, Department
of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Hugo Águas
- i3N/CENIMAT, Department
of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Beatrice Fraboni
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
| | - Elvira Fortunato
- i3N/CENIMAT, Department
of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Rodrigo Martins
- i3N/CENIMAT, Department
of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Rui Igreja
- i3N/CENIMAT, Department
of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
| | - Pedro Barquinha
- i3N/CENIMAT, Department
of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
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Growth Mechanism of Seed-Layer Free ZnSnO 3 Nanowires: Effect of Physical Parameters. NANOMATERIALS 2019; 9:nano9071002. [PMID: 31336752 PMCID: PMC6669656 DOI: 10.3390/nano9071002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2019] [Revised: 07/02/2019] [Accepted: 07/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
ZnSnO3 semiconductor nanostructures have several applications as photocatalysis, gas sensors, and energy harvesting. However, due to its multicomponent nature, the synthesis is far more complex than its binary counter parts. The complexity increases even more when aiming for low-cost and low-temperature processes as in hydrothermal methods. Knowing in detail the influence of all the parameters involved in these processes is imperative, in order to properly control the synthesis to achieve the desired final product. Thus, this paper presents a study of the influence of the physical parameters involved in the hydrothermal synthesis of ZnSnO3 nanowires, namely volume, reaction time, and process temperature. Based on this study a growth mechanism for the complex Zn:Sn:O system is proposed. Two zinc precursors, zinc chloride and zinc acetate, were studied, showing that although the growth mechanism is inherent to the material itself, the chemical reactions for different conditions need to be considered.
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Rovisco A, Branquinho R, Martins J, Oliveira MJ, Nunes D, Fortunato E, Martins R, Barquinha P. Seed-Layer Free Zinc Tin Oxide Tailored Nanostructures for Nanoelectronic Applications: Effect of Chemical Parameters. ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS 2018; 1:3986-3997. [PMID: 30294718 PMCID: PMC6166637 DOI: 10.1021/acsanm.8b00743] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2018] [Accepted: 07/20/2018] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Semiconductor nanowires are mostly processed by complex, expensive, and high temperature methods. In this work, with the intent of developing zinc tin oxide nanowires (ZTO NWs) by low-cost and low-complexity processes, we show a detailed study on the influence of chemical parameters in the hydrothermal synthesis of ZTO nanostructures at temperatures of only 200 °C. Two different zinc precursors, the ratio between zinc and tin precursors, and the concentration of the surfactant agent and of the mineralizer were studied. The type and the crystallinity of the nanostructures were found to be highly dependent on the used precursors and on the concentration of each reagent. Conditions for obtaining different ZTO nanostructures were achieved, namely, Zn2SnO4 nanoparticles and ZnSnO3 nanowires with length ∼600 nm, with the latter being reported for the first time ever by hydrothermal methods without the use of seed layers. Optical and electrical properties were analyzed, obtaining band gaps of 3.60 and 3.46 eV for ZnSnO3 and Zn2SnO4, respectively, and a resistivity of 1.42 kΩ·cm for single ZnSnO3 nanowires, measured using nanomanipulators after localized deposition of Pt electrodes by e-beam assisted gas decomposition. The low-temperature hydrothermal methods explored here proved to be a low-cost, reproducible, and highly flexible route to obtain multicomponent oxide nanostructures, particularly ZTO NWs. The diversity of the synthesized ZTO structures has potential application in next-generation nanoscale devices such as field effect nanotransistors, nanogenerators, resistive switching memories, gas sensors, and photocatalysis.
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