Piezoelectric BaTiO₃ thin film nanogenerator on plastic substrates

Nano Lett. 2010 Dec 8;10(12):4939-43. doi: 10.1021/nl102959k. Epub 2010 Nov 4.

Abstract

The piezoelectric generation of perovskite BaTiO3 thin films on a flexible substrate has been applied to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy for the first time. Ferroelectric BaTiO3 thin films were deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on a Pt/Ti/SiO2/(100) Si substrate and poled under an electric field of 100 kV/cm. The metal-insulator (BaTiO3)-metal-structured ribbons were successfully transferred onto a flexible substrate and connected by interdigitated electrodes. When periodically deformed by a bending stage, a flexible BaTiO3 nanogenerator can generate an output voltage of up to 1.0 V. The fabricated nanogenerator produced an output current density of 0.19 μA/cm(2) and a power density of ∼7 mW/cm(3). The results show that a nanogenerator can be used to power flexible displays by means of mechanical agitations for future touchable display technologies.