BIOTEMPLATED SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PIEZOELECTRIC PZT NANOWIRES

Abstract

Portable energy harvesting has become a topic of fundamental and applied interest in research due to its potential for new energy conversion phenomena and for societal impact. With growing demands for energy, especially with continued use of portable electronics, smaller energy sources are becoming important in daily life. As the most common portable energy source, batteries add weight and size to a system and require constant recharging. To overcome this obstacle, research for nanogenerators made of piezoelectric materials, which are materials that convert mechanical energy to electrical and vice versa, are becoming increasingly important. A piezoelectric material with one of the largest piezoelectric charge constants is lead zirconate titanate (PZT). The synthesis of piezoelectric PZT nanowires has been limited because of the challenges in controlling parameters for structure, stoichiometry, crystallinity and phase. Thus, PZT was considered for nanowire synthesis, because nanowires are powerful building blocks for many electronics and sensors. Novel ways of synthesizing piezoelectric PZT nanowires with biotemplates for the fabrication and application of nanogenerators are proposed here for the first time. Both ways are founded on the unique chemical and physical properties of the biotemplates: alginate and M13 phage. The biotemplates enable successful synthesis of polycrystalline PZT nanowires that have the desirable morphology and piezoelectric response, as established by spectroscopic, microscopic, and scanning probe techniques. This work thus establishes a new foundation for the bottom up synthesis of next-generation energy scavenging nanogenerators.