Nanogenerator

By T.Arun (1RE07ME053)

Department of mechanical engineering Reva institute of technology & management

Contents
Sl. No. 1 2 2.1 2.2 3 3.1 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 5 6 7 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 8 9 Topic Abstract Introduction Overview Why nanogenerator is required? Nanogenerator construction Fabrication process Classification based on geometric configuration VING LING Other type Materials Nanogenerator advantages Application Self-powered nano/micro devices Smart Wearable Systems Transparent and Flexible Devices Implantable Telemetric Energy Receiver Conclusion Reference Page No. 3 4 4 5 6 8 9 9 10 10 11 13 14 14 14 15 15 16 17

Figures and tables Sl. No. Fig./Table content

Fig 1 Fig 2 Design and fabrication of nano generator

Page no.
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Fig 3

Experimental setup for the piezoelectric charge 7 detection from an individual barium-titanate nano wire Fabrication process of the nanogenerator 8 Schematic view of typical VING Schematic view of typical LING Comparison of the reported materials

Fig 4 Fig 5 Table 1

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1. Abstract
Materials Science research is now entered a new phase where the structure and properties of materials are investigated, characterized and controlled at the nano scale. Today's portable electronics depend on batteries for power. Batteries and other traditional sources are too large, and tend to negate the size advantages of nano devices. Now researchers have demonstrated that easy-to-make, inexpensive nanowires can harvest mechanical energy, to overcome these challenges researches are finding alternative ways, and nano generator is one promising answer. A nano generator take advantage of unique coupled piezoelectric & semi conducting properties of zinc oxide nano structure (wires), which produce small electrical charges when they are flexed. By finding a way to collect electricity from multiple nano wires, the researchers took a big step toward a practical nano -scale power generator. When you walk, you generate 67 watts. Your finger movement is 0.1 watt. Your breathing is one watt. If you can convert a fraction of that, you can power a device. From the concept we've demonstrated, we can convert 17-30 percent of that energy. Consequently, researchers are developing innovative technologies to convert various forms of energy into electrical energy for low power nano devices. In this paper the piezoelectric zinc oxide nano wire arrays are used to demonstrate a novel approach for converting nano mechanical energy into electrical energy.

2. Introduction

2.1 Overview
Nanotechnology is a field whose theme is the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale, nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller. Nanotechnology is extremely diverse ranging from novel extensions of conventional device physics. Nanogenerator is a prototype nanometer-scale generator that produces continuous direct-current electricity by harvesting mechanical energy from such environmental sources as ultrasonic waves, mechanical vibration or blood flow. Based on arrays of verticallyaligned zinc oxide nano wires that move inside a novel zig-zag plate electrode, the nanogenerators could provide a new way to power nanoscale devices without batteries or other external power sources. Nanogenerator is an energy harvesting device converting the external kinetic energy into an electrical energy based on the energy conversion by nano-structured piezoelectric material. Although its definition may include any types of energy harvesting devices with nanostructure converting the various types of the ambient energy, it is used in most of times to specifically indicate the kinetic energy harvesting devices utilizing nano-scaled piezoelectric material after its first introduction in 2006. Although still in the early stage of the development, it has been regarded as a potential breakthrough toward the further miniaturization of the conventional energy harvester, possibly leading the facile integration with the other types of energy harvester converting the different types of energy and the independent operation of mobile electronic devices with the reduced concerns for the energy source, consequently. Over the past decades, intensive research efforts have been carried out in developing energy harvesting system for portable and wireless applications. In particular, piezoelectric generator offers the most robust and simple solutions for mechanical energy harvesting. The main advantage of piezoelectric generator is its scalability. This is why the recent reports of energy harvesting from the environment using ZnO nanowire arrays have attracted great interests by scaling down the power source to nanoscale. PVDF stands for Poly (vinylidene fluoride). PVDF is a highly non -reactive, flexible, inexpensive, and leading polymer with good piezoelectric property. However, it must first be stretched and poled in a strong electrical field for its piezoelectricity. In this work, we present a direct-write technology to produce and place piezoelectric PVDF nanofibers at the same time with the in -situ poling and mechanical stretching process simultaneously as the foundation for nanogenerators .

2.2 Why nanogenerator is required?

Materials Science research is now entered a new phase where the structure and properties of materials are investigated, characterized and controlled at the nano scale. Though as sophisticated as their larger counterparts, these devices are still burdened because they rely on an outside power. Batteries and other traditional sources are too large, and tend to negate the size advantages of nano devices. To overcome these challenges researches are finding alternative ways, and nano generator is one promising answer. A nano generator take advantage of unique coupled piezo electric & semi conducting properties of zinc oxide nano structure (wires), which produce small electrical charges when they are flexed. By finding a way to collect electricity from multiple nano wires, the researchers took a big step toward a practical nano-scale power generator.

3. Nanogenerator construction/ fabrication

The Nanogenerator is constructed with an electrode lowered on top of the nanowire array, leaving just enough space so that a significant number of the nanowires are free to flex within the gaps created by the tips. Moved by the mechanical energy such as waves or vibration, the nanowires periodically contact the tips, transferring their electrical charges. By capturing the tiny amounts of current produced by hundreds of nanowires kept in motion, the generators produce a direct current output in the nano-Ampere range. The Nanogenerator could produce as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter- based on a calculation for a single nanowire. The Nanogenerator would produce enough power to operate nanometer scale defense, environmental and biomedical applications, including biosensors implanted in the body, environmental monitors, and even nanoscale robots. April 14, 2006 issue of the journal Science, Wangs research team announced the concept behind the nanogenerators. At the time the Nanogenerator could harvest power from just one nanowire at a time by dragging the tip of an atomic force microscope over it. Made of platinum coated silicon, the tip served as a schottky barrier, helping accumulate and preserve the electrical charge as the nanowire flexed and ensuring that the current flowed in one direction.

Fig 1: Design and fabrication of nano generator

Fig2: Schematic showing the experimental setup for the piezoelectric charge detection from an individual barium-titanate nano wire.

3.1 Fabrication process

Fig3: show the fabrication process of the nanogenerator. First, two aluminum electrodes are put on the plastic substrate with a spacing of 500 nm to 1 mm. The aluminum electrodes serve as the collector for NFES (near-field electrospinning) process and output leads for piezoelectricity measurement. Secondly, we directly write PVDF nanofiber across two grounded aluminum electrodes using the NFES process. Finally, silver pastes are applied at the two ends of PVDF nanofiber so that the bonding between nanofiber and electrodes are reinforced and the contact resistance is reduced. Figure 4(c) shows actual device with a single PVDF nanofiber. The PVDF nanofiber has a diameter of 700 nm and is suspended across two aluminum electrodes that are 700 nm apart.

4. Classification based on geometrical configuration

Depending on the configuration of piezoelectric nanostructure, the most of the nanogenerator can be categorized into 2 types: VING (Vertical nanowire Integrated Nanogenerator) LING (Lateral nanowire Integrated Nanogenerator) Still, there is a configuration that do not fall into the aforementioned categories , as stated in other type.

4.1 Vertical nanowire Integrated Nanogenerator (VING)

VING is a 3-dimensional configuration consisting of a stack of 3 layers in general, which are the base electrode, the vertically grown piezoelectric nanostructure and the counter electrode. The piezoelectric nanostructure is usually grown from the base electrode by various synthesizing techniques, which are then integrated with the counter electrode in full or partial mechanical contact with its tip.

Fig4: Schematic view of typical Vertical nanowire Integrated Nanogenerator

4.2 Lateral nanowire Integrated Nanogenerator (LING)

LING is a 2-dimensional configuration consisting of three parts: the base electrode, the laterally grown piezoelectric nanostructure and the metal electrode for schottky contact. In most of cases, the thickness of the substrate film is much thicker than the diameter of the piezoelectric nanostructure, so the individual nanostructure is subjected to the pure tensile strain. LING is an expansion of single wire generator (SWG), where a laterally aligned nanowire is integrated on the flexible substrate. SWG is rather a scientific configuration used for verifying the capability of electrical energy generation of a piezoelectric material and is widely adopted in the early stage of the development

Fig 5: Schematic view of typical Lateral nanowire Integrated Nanogenerator

4.3 Other type

The fabric-like geometrical configuration has been suggested by Professor Zhong Lin Wang in 2008. The piezoelectric nanowire is grown vertically on the two microfibers in its radial direction, and they are twined to form a nanogenerator. One of the microfibers is coated with the metal to form a schottky contact, serving as the counter electrode of VINGs. As the movable microfiber is stretched, the deformation of the nanostructure occurs on the stationary microfiber, resulting in the voltage generation. Its working principle is identical to VINGs with partial mechanical contact, thus generating DC electrical signal.

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5. Materials
Among various piezoelectric materials studied for the nanogenerator, many of the researches have been focused on the materials with wurtzite structure such as ZnO, CdS and GaN. The greatest advantage of theses material arises from the facile and cost-effective fabrication technique, hydrothermal synthesis. Since the hydrothermal synthesis can be conducted in a low temperature environment under 100C in addition to vertical and crystalline growth, these materials can be integrated in various substrates with reduced concern for its physical characteristics such as a melting temperature. Endeavors for enhancing the piezoelectricity of the individual nanowire also led to the development of other piezoelectric materials based on Wurtzite structure. Professor Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Institute of Technology introduced p-type ZnO nanowire. Unlike the n-type semiconductive nanostructure, the mobile particle in p-type is a hole, thus the schottky behavior is reversed from that of n-type case; the electrical signal is generated from the portion of the nanostructure where the holes are accumulated. It is experimentally proved that p-type ZnO nanowire can generate the output signal near 10 times that of n-type ZnO nanowire. From the idea that the material with perovskite structure is known to have more effective piezoelectric characteristic compared to that with wurtzite structure, Barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanowire has been also studied by Professor Min-Feng Yu of University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The output signal is found to be more than 16 time that from a similar ZnO nanowire. Professor Liwei Lin of University of California at Berkeley has suggested that PVDF can be also applied to form a nanogenerator. Being a polymer, PVDF utilizes a near-field electrospinning for its fabrication, which is rather a different technique compared to other materials. The nanofiber can be directly written on the substrate controlling the process, and this technique is expected to be applied for forming self-powered textile based on nanofiber.

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5.1 Comparison of the reported materials by 2010 is given in the following table

Material

Type

Geometry

Output voltage

Output power

Synthesis

Researched at

ZnO(ntype)

Wurtzite

D: ~100 nm, L: 200~500 nm

VP=~9 mV @ R=500M

~0.5 pW per cycle (estimated)

CVD, hydrothermal process

Georgia Tech.

ZnO(ptype)

Wurtzite

5~16.2 pW D: ~50 nm, L: VP=50~90 mV @ per cycle ~600 nm R=500M (calculated)

CVD

Georgia Tech.

ZnO-ZnS

Wurtzite Not stated (Heterostructure)

VP=~6 mV @ R=500M

~0.1 pW per cycle (calculated)

Thermal evaporation and etching

Georgia Tech.

GaN

Wurtzite

Vavg=~20 D: 25~70 nm, mV,Vmax=~0.35 L: 10~20 m V@ R=500M

~0.8 pW per cycle (average, calculated)

CVD

Georgia Tech.

CdS

Wurtzite

D: ~100 nm, L: 1 m

VP=~3 mV

Not stated

PVD, Hydrothermal Process

Georgia Tech.

BaTiO3

Pervoskite

D: ~280 nm, L: ~15 m

VP=~25 mV @ R=100M

High ~0.3 aJ per temperature cycle (stated) chemical reaction

UIUC

PVDF

Polymer

D: 0.5~6.5 m, L: 0.1~0.6 mm

VP=5~30 mV

2.5 pW~90 pW per cycle Electro spinning UC Berkely (calculated)

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The piezoelectric nanogenerator could potentially convert the following into electric energy for self -powering nanodevices and nanosystems:
Mechanical-movement energy, such as body or muscle movement or blood pressure; Vibration energy, from acoustic or ultrasonic waves; Hydraulic energy, such as from the flow of body fluids or blood, the contraction of blood vessels, or dynamic fluid in nature. The microelectronic mechanical systems microgenerator, which is mostly built on a piezoelectric thin-flm cantilever, can also convert such energy into electric energy.

y y y

6. NW- based nanogenerators offer the following advantages:

y Because NWs can grow on any substrate at a low temperature, you can integrate NW based nanogenerators with organic and inorganic materials for flexible electronics. NW-based nanogenerator work on a wide frequency range, from a few hertz to multiple megahertzs. Also the NWs mechanical resonance is not required to generate electricity. ZnO is bio-compatible and environment friendly. NWs have super elasticity and resistive to fatigue, owing to there smaller diameter, so we expect nanogenerators to be long lasting. With a large surface area, NW functionality may provide additional advantages such as surface modifications.

y y

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7. Application

7.1. Self-powered nano/micro devices

One of the feasible applications of nanogenerator is an independent or a supplementary energy source to nano/micro devices consuming relatively low amount of energy in a condition where the kinetic energy is supplied continuously. One of example has been introduced by Professor Zhong Lin Wangs group in 2010 by the self-powered pH or UV sensor integrated VING with an output voltage of 20~40 mV onto the sensor. Still, the converted electrical energy is relatively small for operating nano/micro devices; therefore the range of its application is still bounded as a supplementary energy source to the battery. The breakthrough is being sought by combining the nanogenerator with the other types of energy harvesting devices, such as solar cell or biochemical energy harvester. This approach is expected to contribute to the development of the energy source suitable for the application where the independent operation is crucial, such as smartdust.

7.2. Smart Wearable Systems

The outfit integrated or made of the textiles with the piezoelectric fiber is one of the feasible applications of the nanogenerator. The kinetic energy from the human body is converted to the electrical energy through the piezoelectric fibers, and it can be possibly applied to supply the portable electronic devices such as health-monitoring system attached with the Smart Wearable Systems. The nanogenerator such as VING can be also easily integrated in the shoe employing the walking motion of human body. Another similar application is a power-generating artificial skin. Professor Zhong Lin Wangs group has shown the possibility by generating AC voltage of up to 100 mV from the flexible SWG attached to the running hamster

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7.3. Transparent and Flexible Devices

Some of the piezoelectric nanostructure can be formed in various kinds of substrates, such as flexible and transparent organic substrate. The research groups in SKKU (Professor SangWoo Kims group) and SAIT (Dr. Jae-Young Chois group) have developed the transparent and flexible nanogenerator which can be possibly used for self-powered tactile sensor and anticipated that the development may be extended to the energy-efficient touch screen devices. Their research focus is being extended to enhance the transparency of the device and the cost-effectiveness by substituting Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) electrode with a graphene layer.

7.4. Implantable Telemetric Energy Receiver

The nanogenerator based on ZnO nanowire can be applied for implantable devices since ZnO not only is bio-compatible but also can be synthesized upon the organic substrate, rendering the nanogenerator bio-compatible in overall. The implantable device integrated with the nanogenerator can be operated by receiving the external ultrasonic vibration outside the human body, which is converted to the electrical energy by the piezoelectric nanostructure

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8. Conclusion

Researchers expect that with optimization, the nano generator could produce as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter based on a calculation for a single nano wire

One day by placing these into people's shoes we can generate electricity when walking.

Powering the simple electronic devices.

The principle and nanogenerator demonstration could be the basis for new self powered nano devices that can harvest electricity from environment for application such as implantable bio-medical devices, wireless sensors, and portable electronics.

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9. Reference
y y y y y y y y http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/cellphone-charger-with-nanogenerator-systemallows-charging-on-the-go/ http://www.edocfind.com/en/ppt/nanogenerators-1.html http://www.physorg.com/news95001943.html http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?id=1326 Zhong Lin Wang and Jinhui Song, "Piezoelectric Nanogenerators Based on Zinc Oxide Nanowire Arrays," Science 312, 242 http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-nanogenerator.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanogenerator http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-nanogenerators-strong-power-smallconventional.html

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