A SCREEN-PRINTED PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTER USING ZnO TETRAPOD ARRAYS

In this work, for the first time, we combine electronic printing technology, electrostatic spraying technology and the new 3D structure of ZnO. The new structure was prepared with a simple, low-cost and massive method that was not successfully applied before. The ZnO tetrapods/PET composite device exhibits an output open-circuit voltage of similar to 20 V and a short-circuit current of similar to 300nA under repeated hand pressing. It is demonstrated that the output power from the PENG can directly drive the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and charge a capacitor. But a typical flexible polymer produces an output voltage of 3.3 V and cannot power light-emitting diodes.