Development and optimisation of a zinc oxide nanogenerator

Abstract

A nanogenerator is developed using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires. Design of experiments is used to optimise the growth parameters of the ZnO nanowires, with an increase in output voltage set as the optimising parameter. After the optimisation of the nanowire growth, focus is shifted to the optimisation of the manufacturing of the nanogenerator. The nanowires are plasma treated and annealed right after growth, both methods increasing the output voltage. The last step in manufacturing is adding PMMA for stability and durability. Various materials are dispersed in the PMMA to further enhance the output voltage. Single walled carbon nanotubes and ZnO nanowires gave the biggest increase in output voltage. A nanogenerator manufactured with a combination of these optimisation techniques resulted in an output voltage of over 5 V, a ten-fold increase of output voltage.