As an outstanding member in the oxide nanowire family, ZnO nanowire is widely studied for its optical, semiconductive, and piezoelectric properties. PbZrxTi1–xO3 (PZT), usually in the form of polycrystalline thin films, is known for its high piezoelectric coefficient and is an ideal material as actuator. In this review, we first briefly introduce the rational growth of ZnO and PZT nanowire arra...

Piezoelectric nanobeams having circular, rectangular and hexagonal cross-sections are synthesized and used in various Nano structures; however, piezoelectric nanobeams with hexagonal cross-sections have not been studied in detail. In particular, the physical mechanisms of the surface effect and the role of surface stress, surface elasticity and surface piezoelectricity have not been discussed t...

is among the most abundant and reliable energy sources in our daily life, regardless of weather or temperature conditions, in contrast with solar [ 2 ] and thermoelectric energies. [ 3 ] New materials, structures and technologies have been subjects of active research and development. [ 4–7 ] Likewise, at the nanoscale, energy harvesting nanotechnologies based on the piezoelectric effect have be...

The collective dipole behaviors in (BaTiO3)m/(SrTiO3)n composite nanowires are investigated based on the first-principles-derived simulations. It demonstrates that such nanowire systems exhibit intriguing dipole orders, due to the combining effect of the anisotropic electrostatic interaction of the nanowire, the SrTiO3-layer-modified electrostatic interaction and the multiphase ground state of ...

Piezoelectric energy conversion that generate electric energy from ambient mechanical and vibrational movements is promising energy harvesting technology because it can use more accessible energy resources than other renewable natural energy. In particular, flexible and stretchable piezoelectric energy harvesters which can harvest the tiny biomechanical motions inside human body into electricit...

We present a standing surface acoustic wave (SSAW) based approach to achieve one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) alignment of nanowires (NWs). Our SSAW-based nanowire-aligning technique can be used to construct large-scale (e.g., centimeter scale) network of nanowires within 5 min. In this approach, we use interdigital transducers deposited on a piezoelectric substrate to generate dif...

A hybrid nanowire (HNW) was constructed by coating a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) with piezoelectric zinc oxide (ZnO). The two components of the HNW interact with each other via the van der Waals (vdW) force. This paper aims to study the effect of the piezoelectricity in the ZnO layer and the inter-phase vdW interaction on the fundamental vibration of the HNWs. In doing this, a new model...

We report an approach for growing aligned ZnO nanowire arrays with a high degree control over size, orientation, dimensionality, uniformity, and possibly shape. Our method combines e-beam lithography and a low temperature hydrothermal method to achieve patterned and aligned growth of ZnO NWs at <100degreesC on general inorganic substrates, such as Si and GaN, without using catalyst. This approa...

A comprehensive investigation was carried out on n-type ZnO nanowires for studying the temperature dependence of the piezotronic effect from 77 to 300 K. In general, lowering the temperature results in a largely enhanced piezotronic effect. The experimental results show that the behaviors can be divided into three groups depending on the carrier doping level or conductivity of the ZnO nanowires...