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PUBLISHED ONLINE: 9 NOVEMBER 2008 | DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2008.314

Power generation with laterally packaged

piezoelectric ne wires
Rusen Yang1, Yong Qin1, Liming Dai2 and Zhong Lin Wang1 *
Converting mechanical energy into electricity could have
applications in sensing, medical science, defence technology
and personal electronics1, and the ability of nanowires
to scavenge energy from ambient and environmental
sources24 could prove useful for powering nanodevices58.
Previously reported nanowire generators911 were based on
vertically aligned piezoelectric nanowires that were attached
to a substrate at one end and free to move at the other.
However, there were problems with the output stability, mechanical robustness, lifetime and environmental adaptability of
such devices. Here we report a exible power generator that
is based on cyclic stretching releasing of a piezoelectric ne
wire that is rmly attached to metal electrodes at both ends,
is packaged on a exible substrate, and does not involve
sliding contacts. Repeatedly stretching and releasing a single
wire with a strain of 0.05 0.1% creates an oscillating output
voltage of up to 50 mV, and the energy conversion efciency
of the wire can be as high as 6.8%.
In existing piezoelectric nanowire generators, a zigzag electrode
50 100 nm above an array of ZnO nanowires911 is forced to
move by external forces or disturbances, thus bending the nanowires
and inducing a voltage. However, the deliberate rubbing together of
the electrode and the nanowire array results in wear, increased
contact resistance/instability, and inltration of vapour and
liquid. In the design reported here, a piezoelectric ne wire
(PFW) lies at on a exible substrate and is xed to electrodes at
both ends (Fig. 1a). When the substrate bends and stretches the
wire, a tensile strain of 0.05 0.1% is induced in the wire (see
Fig. 1b and Supplementary Information), leading to a drop in the
piezoelectric potential along the wire, and forcing electrons to
ow along an external circuit to charge the wire. And when the substrate is released, electrons ow back in the opposite direction.
Periodically bending and releasing the PFW therefore generates
an alternating current, and generators based on multiple PFWs
can be integrated to raise the output voltage. The entire structure
is packaged inside a thin layer of insulating wax or exible
polymer to maintain its physical stability (Fig. 1c).
Electrical measurements have shown that effective single-wire
generators (SWG) all exhibit Schottky behaviour at one end
(Fig. 1d). The short-circuit current (Isc) and open-circuit voltage
(Voc) were measured to characterize the performance of an SWG.
To verify that the measured signal was generated by an SWG
rather than the measurement system, we have developed two criteria: the switching-polarity test10 (Fig. 1e) and a number of
linear superposition tests (see Supplementary Information).
When the current meter was forward connected to an SWG, a positive voltage/current pulse was recorded during fast stretching of
the substrate (Fig. 2a), and a corresponding negative pulse for fast
release (where fast means an angular bending rate of 2608 sec21
at a radius of 2 cm for the substrate). For a single PFW with a

diameter of 4 mm and a length of 200 mm, the output voltage

was 20 50 mV and the output current was 400750 pA.
Although the heights of the current peaks for the stretch and
release appear different, possibly because of different straining
rates, the areas under the peaks remain the same (see
Supplementary Information, Table S1); the total charges transported in the two processes also remain the same to within 5%
(with the total being 1  108 electrons). Similar experiments
have been done when the PFW is under compressive strain.
When the current meter was reverse connected (Fig. 1e), the
voltage and current pulses were also reversed (Fig. 2b). The nonsymmetric output of the SWG before and after switching the
polarity is likely caused by a bias current in the measurement
system, which is added to the current generated by the SWG in
the forward conguration, and subtracted from the generated
current in the reverse conguration. The true signal generated by
the SWG is an average of the magnitudes observed under forward
and reverse congurations. Further measurements showed that at
least one Schottky contact and a piezoelectric material are needed
for the SWG to produce an output (see Methods). The stability of
the SWG has been examined by stretchingreleasing an SWG at
22 cycles per minute for 45 and 120 min (Fig. 2c). The output
signal was relatively stable, although a slight declining trend was
seen, which was caused by the fatigue of the rubber band used for
transmitting the mechanical bending to the substrate.
The electrical output of the SWG also depends on the rate at
which the strain deformation is introduced, with the voltage/current output for a fast stretch or release being signicantly higher
than the voltage/current output for a slow stretch or release
(where slow means an angular bending rate of 78 sec21 at a
radius of 2 cm for the substrate; see Supplementary Information,
Figs S5,S6). A slow stretch or release generates a lower output
over a longer period of time signal (Fig. 2d) and the total charges
transported in a fast stretch/slow release and a slow stretch/fast
release remain the same to within 4%, which means that the
leakage current is very small (see Supplementary Information,
Tables S2,S3).
The efciency of the SWG has been estimated. The total
mechanical deformation energy stored in the PFW after stretching
is Wm 1/2EA(L L0)2/L0, where E is the elastic modulus,
L0 is the original length, L is the length after straining and A
is the cross-sectional area. The total electric energy generated is
We VI dt. The energy conversion efciency (We/Wm) of the
PFW itself, excluding the substrate lm, is up to 6.8% (see
Supplementary Information).
The output voltage of the generators was enhanced by connecting them in series after IV measurements (Fig. 3a) and
power output measurement to ensure they were connected with
the correct polarity and sequence. The I V characteristic of two
SWGs connected in series still showed Schottky behaviour, and

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0245, USA, 2 Department of Chemical and Materials
Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Dayton, Ohio 45469, USA; * e-mail: [email protected]

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NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY

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ZnO

Kapto

n film

Packa

ging fi

lm

Forward connection

40

SWG

20

Reversed connection
+

0
1.0

0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

Applied voltage (V)

Figure 1 | Design of a piezoelectric ne wire (PFW) generator on a exible

substrate. a, The PFW lies on a polymer (Kapton) substrate, with both ends
tightly bonded to the substrate and outlet interconnects. b, Mechanical
bending of the substrate creates tensile strain and a corresponding
piezoelectric potential in the PFW, driving electrons through the external
load. c, The wires are connected in series and packaged in a exible polymer
lm. d, IV characteristic of a single-wire generator (SWG), showing a
typical Schottky diode characteristic with a forward-bias threshold voltage of
0.3 V. We dene the end-contact of the SWG that displays Schottky
behaviour to be positive (shown here by a diode symbol at the interface).
e, Denition of the switching-polarity test.

the output voltage was approximately the sum of the output

voltages of the individual SWGs (Fig. 3b). When the two SWGs
are connected in series but in reverse polarity, the output
voltage is the difference of the two (Fig. 3c). We propose that

LETTERS

satisfying the switching-polarity and linear superposition criteria is a necessary and sufcient condition to conrm that the
output is indeed generated by the SWGs (see Supplementary
Information). Finally, increasing the straining rate signicantly
increases the electrical output (Fig. 3d; see Supplementary
Information, Figs S7,S8).
The ZnO PFWs used in our experiments were oriented along the
c-axis. It is known that the (0001) and (0001) facets of ZnO are terminated with zinc and oxygen, respectively, and a non-symmetric
Schottky contact usually appears at one end in transport measurement (see Supplementary Information). Figure 4 shows a proposed
mechanism for the generation of current in single-wire generators in
terms of the band structure of the system, with a Schottky
barrier introduced to represent a high local contact resistance
(50 1,000 MV) to block the ow of electrons through the wire
(see Supplementary Information, Tables S4,S5).
When the PFW is subjected to tensile strain, a piezoelectric eld
is created in the PFW due to polarization of atoms in the crystal to
create ionic charges (Fig. 4b; see Supplementary Information).
These piezoelectric charges, which are non-mobile, remain in the
PFW for an extended period of time without depletion by the
free carriers as long as the strain is preserved13,14. When the piezoelectric potential is positive (V ) at the Schottky barrier side (which
is on the left), and negative (V 2) at the ohmic side (which is on the
right in Fig. 4a), the conduction band and Fermi level of the electrode on the right is raised by DEp e(V 2 V2) with respect to
the electrode on the left, and electrons will ow from the right electrode to the left electrode through an external load resistor because
the resistance of the Schottky barrier is very high for voltages below
a threshold value and thus blocks the ow of electrons through
the wire (Fig. 4b). The electrons accumulate at the interfacial
region between the left electrode and the wire, and this process
continues until the potential created by the accumulated electrons
balances the piezoelectric potential and the Fermi levels of the electrodes reach a new equilibrium value (Fig. 4c). When the tensile
strain in the PFW is released, the immediate disappearance of the
piezoelectric potential lowers the Fermi surface of the right electrode
by DEp, and the electrons that had accumulated near the left electrode ow back through the external circuit to the right electrode
(Fig. 4d), returning the system to its original state. The peaks in
the electrical output associated with the stretching and release are
shown in Fig. 4e.
If the piezoelectric potential is negative (V 2) at the Schottky
barrier side and positive (V ) at the ohmic side (as a result of
switching the c-axis orientation of the PFW), the Fermi level of
the left electrode will be raised by DEp when the PFW is subjected
to tensile strain, and electrons ow from left to right through the
external load resistor (Fig. 4f ). The free electrons can enter the
PFW and screen the piezoelectric charges, reducing the local effec
tive potentials to V 2
1 and V1 , but the free electrons cannot completely neutralize/deplete the piezoelectric charges because the latter
cannot move (Fig. 4g)15,16. This process continues until an electric
potential due to the free moving electrons is created across the
PFW to balance the piezoelectric potential and the Fermi levels at
the two electrodes reach a new equilibrium value (Fig. 4g). When
the strain is released, the piezoelectric potential disappears, and
the free charges used to screen the piezoelectric charges are free to
move. At this moment, the Fermi level of the right electrode is
higher than that of the left electrode, resulting in the electrons
owing back from right to left through the external circuit. This
process ends when the Fermi levels of the two sides reach
equilibrium again.
The Schottky barrier acts as a gate that prevents the ow of the
electrons through the PFW; in addition to preserving the piezoelectric potential, this also leads to the accumulation of electrons, which
leads to a higher discharge rate. The Schottky barrier can either be at

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FS

0
10
FR FR
20

400

600
800
60

80

100

120

25.3 25.5
Time (s)

140

20

40

Time (s)

80

100

120

140

100

120

140

300

10

200
Current (pA)

Voltage (mV)

Reversed connection to
measurement system

60

Time (s)

15

FR FR

5
0
5

600

FR FR

50
40

400

200

40
20

FS

0
200

400

30

FS

200
Current (pA)

FS

Voltage (mV)

Voltage (mV)

Forward connection to
measurement system

10

0
10
20
30
40
50
25.2 25.4
Time (s)

Current (pA)

600
20

FS

FS

FR FR

100
0

100 FS

FS

10
200
15
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

20

40

Time (s)

60

20

1
0
1
2
3

10

0
Current (pA)

Current (pA)

Voltage (mV)

SS

0
10
20

20
Time (min)

40

2
4
6
8

4
60
Time (min)

30

90

120

FR
10

20 30 40
Time (s)

50

20 30
Time (s)

50

20

Current (pA)

2
1
0
1

15

10

10

Current (pA)

Voltage (mV)

80

Time (s)

0
5
10

2
3
0

6
8
Time (s)

10

12

14

4
2
0

15

20

4
0

6
8
Time (s)

10

12

FS

SR
0

10

40

Figure 2 | Electrical output of a single-wire generator (SWG). a,b, Open-circuit voltage (left) and short-circuit current (right) of an SWG when subject to
repeated cycles of fast stretching (FS) and fast release (FR) when forward-connected to the measurement system (a) and reverse-connected to the
measurement system (b). The insets in a show the detailed shapes of peaks in the voltage and current outputs. c, The electrical output of a SWG operated
at 22 cycles per minute demonstrates the stability of this approach. The bottom two panels show the detailed shapes of the voltage (left) and current (right)
outputs. d, Electric current generated when the PFW was subject to slow stretching (SS) and fast release (top), and fast stretching and slow release
(SR; lower curve). The data in a and b were acquired from the same SWG; the data in c and d are from different SWGs.

just one side of the PFW or at both sides. An insulator layer can also
perform the same role (see Supplementary Information, Fig. S9).
The PFW acts like a capacitor and charge pump, storing electrons
and then driving them back and forth through the external circuit as
the PFW is stretched and released. This means that the generated
voltage does not need to exceed a critical value (such as 0.4 V in
36

Fig. 3a) for the device to work. A repeated stretchingreleasing of

a single PFW creates a transient voltage up to 50 mV. The use
of microwire/nanowires and their integration with a polymer lm
leads to a huge improvement in the mechanical exibility and
toughness of the entire generator (see Supplementary
Information, Fig. S10).

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Current (nA)

70

SWG1

200

0.5

Current (nA)

1.0

140

Current (nA)

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DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2008.314

SWG2

100

1.0

0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.0

0.5

Voltage (V)

0.0

0.5

1.0

SWG1

FS

1.5

SWG2

1.0

FS
Voltage (mV)

0.0
0.5

FR
FR

FR

FR

0.5
0.0
0.5

FS
1.0

1.5
SWG2

SWG1
50

100
150
Time (s)

200

3.2 r.p.m.

250

Voltage (mV)

0.0

SWG1
0

50

FS SWG2
100
150
Time (s)

SWG1 SWG2
200

250

1.0

0.4

0.1

FR

1.5

SWG1 + SWG2

10 r.p.m.

60 r.p.m.
Voltage (mV)

0.2

1.0

FS

0.5

0.5

FR

FS

2.0

0.0

SWG1 SWG2

SWG2

1.5

1.0

0.5

Voltage (V)

SWG1 + SWG2

1.0

1.0

Voltage (V)

SWG1

Voltage (mV)

SWG1 + SWG2

0.0

Voltage (mV)

100

0.2
0.0

0.5

0.0

0.2

0.1

0.5
0

50

100

10

Time (s)

15

20

25

30

Time (s)

Time (s)

Figure 3 | Connecting two single-wire generators (SWGs) in series. a, IV characteristics of two individual SWGs (left, middle), and the same two SWGs in
series (right). b,c, Voltage output of two individual SWGs subject to fast stretching and release, and (for times after 180 s) the same two SWGs connected
constructively in series (b), showing that the output voltages are added, and then connected destructively in series (c), showing that the combined output is
the difference of the two individual outputs. d, As the number of stretchrelease cycles per minute is increased from 3.2 (left) to 10 (middle) to 60 (right),
the output voltage also increases, and is close to sinusoidal for 60cycles per minute. The data in a, b and c were acquired from the same two SWGs; the
data in d are from a different SWG.

In summary, we have demonstrated a exible power generator

that has a number of advantages over generators based on vertically
aligned nanowire arrays9,11 in terms of stability, robustness, cost,
manufacturability and its ability to work in uid and under harsh
conditions. Moreover, the output voltage is 15 100 times higher
than that of the d.c. nanogenerator9 and the bre nanogenerator11,
and there is scope to raise the power output by connecting individual generators in series or integrating thousands of such generators
inside a common or multilayered substrate to form a exible power
sheet/lm.

Methods
Fabrication of the generator. The generator was fabricated by bonding a ZnO PFW
laterally on a Kapton polyimide lm (Fig. 1a). The ZnO PFWs were synthesized by a
physical vapour deposition method12, and typically have diameters of 3 5 mm and

lengths of 200 300 mm. We chose long PFWs because they were easy to manipulate,
but the same process applies to nanowires. The thickness of the Kapton lm received
from DuPont Company was 50 mm. The lm was rst washed with acetone,
isopropyl alcohol and ethanol under sonication. After that, the Kapton lm was
prepared for use as the substrate by dry cleaning using nitrogen gas and baking at
150 8C for 10 min. The ZnO PFW was placed at on the Kapton lm using a
probe station under an optical microscope. Silver paste was applied at both
ends of the ZnO PFW to x its two ends tightly on a exible substrate
(see Supplementary Information, Fig. S1). A current/voltage measurement
meter was connected to two ends of the PFW without introducing any external
power source in the circuit.
The role of the Schottky contact. To examine the role played by the Schottky
contact for electricity generation, we purposely created symmetric ohmic contacts at
two ends of a ZnO PFW using metallic indium. The output signals were very weak
and did not correspondence to the frequency of the fast stretch and release of the
substrate. More importantly, no reversal in output signal was observed in the
switching-polarity test. To examine the role played by the ZnO, we replaced the PFW

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CB
EF

VB

V+

V+

RL

10
b

Ep

FS

Current (pA)

5
R

L
a

e
FR

10
0

1
Time (s)

V+

V1

V1+

Figure 4 | Proposed mechanism for the generation of current in single-wire generators. a, Energy band diagram of a ZnO piezoelectric ne wire (PFW)
making a Schottky contact with a metal electrode on the left and an ohmic contact with an electrode on the right: the dotted line is the Fermi level, EF, of the
electrodes; CB and VB are the conduction and valence bands of the ZnO; and FSB is the height of the Schottky barrier. A realistic measurement circuit
containing a load resistor, RL , that is much smaller than the resistance of the Schottky barrier and the PFW, is also shown. bd, The piezoelectric potential of
the PFW is positive at the Schottky barrier side V, and negative at the Ohmic contact side V 2. When the PFW is tensile stretched, the Fermi levels of the
two electrodes shift relative to each other as described in the text, generating a positive voltage/current peak as a result of electrons owing from the right
electrode to the left electrode (b), and they re-reach equilibrium (c), and they shift reversely again when the PFW is released (d), generating a negative
voltage/current peak as the electrons ow back (from the left electrode to the right electrode). e, Experimentally measured output current from an SWG,
showing the four different stages described above in ad. fh, When the piezoelectric potential of the PFW is negative at the Schottky barrier side V 2, and
positive at the ohmic contact side V , the Fermi levels shift in a different way during the stretchrelease cycle, as described in the text.
by a carbon bre, which is not piezoelectric, and found that no electricity was
generated during the stretch release cycle. We then coated a Kevlar bre with a
500-nm-thick polycrystalline ZnO lm. The contacts still maintained their ohmic
behaviour, but no electricity was generated. This is because the ZnO nanocrystals in
the lm were randomly oriented without a measurable piezoelectric effect. After
these studies (see Supplementary Information, Figs S2,S3,S4) we concluded that the
presence of a Schottky contact at the interface and the piezoelectric property of the
material are mandatory for SWGs. Further experiments showed that an SWG also
produced output if both ends of the PFW were Schottky contacts.

Received 23 June 2008; accepted 10 October 2008;

published online 9 November 2008
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Author contributions

Acknowledgements

Additional information

This research was supported by the US Department of Energy (Basic Energy Sciences), the
National Science Foundation, the Emory-Georgia Tech Cancer Centre for Nanotechnology
Excellence ( funded by the National Institutes of Health) and the US Air Force Ofce of
Scientic Research (FA9550-06-1-0384).

Supplementary Information accompanies this paper at www.nature.com/

naturenanotechnology. Reprints and permission information is available online at http://npg.
nature.com/reprintsandpermissions/. Correspondence and requests for materials should be
addressed to Z.L.W.

Z.L.W. and R.S.Y. designed the experiments. R.S.Y., Y.Q. and L.D. performed the
experiments. Z.L.W. and R.S.Y. analysed the data and wrote the paper. All authors
discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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39