A scalable, flexible and transparent GaN based heterojunction piezoelectric nanogenerator for bending, air-flow and vibration energy harvesting

Muhammad Ali Johar, Jin-Ho Kang, Mostafa Afifi Hassan and Sang-Wan Ryu

Applied Energy, 2018, vol. 222, issue C, 789 pages

Abstract: Flexible functional devices are extremely suitable for malleable, sustainable, and portable applications such as smart clothing, flexible electronics and medical applications. Here, we present a scalable, transparent, and flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator (STF PNG) fabricated by forming a p-n NiO/GaN heterojunction using an electrochemical lift-off process to transfer GaN onto a flexible substrate. Several actuation sources such as air-flow, finger forces for bending, vibrations with a frequency of 20 Hz, and cyclic stretching-releasing agitation by a linear motor were applied to generate piezoelectric bias. Peak piezoelectric output voltage and current of 30 V and 1.43 µA, respectively, were measured. Such high piezoelectric bias was generated by suppressing free carrier screening and junction screening; the former was achieved due to removal of compressive stresses from GaN after the lift-off process, while the latter was achieved by the deposition of a highly resistive p-type NiO layer on transferred GaN and a sandwiched Polydimethylsiloxane resulting in a very high junction resistivity of the p-n NiO/GaN heterojunction STF PNG. As a result, our approach provides a new strategy for novel and highly efficient design of semiconductor-based flexible PNGs for a wide variety of applications.

Keywords: Electrochemical lift-off; Flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators; Free carrier screening; Junction screening (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.04.038

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