Vibration of Piezoelectric ZnO-SWCNT Nanowires

Yao Xiao; Chengyuan Wang; Yuantian Feng

doi:10.3390/nano6120242

Vibration of Piezoelectric ZnO-SWCNT Nanowires

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2016 Dec 15;6(12):242. doi: 10.3390/nano6120242.

Authors

Yao Xiao¹, Chengyuan Wang², Yuantian Feng³

Affiliations

¹ Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea, Wales SA2 8EN, UK. 599275@swansea.ac.uk.
² Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea, Wales SA2 8EN, UK. chengyuan.wang@swansea.ac.uk.
³ Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea, Wales SA2 8EN, UK. y.feng@swansea.ac.uk.

Abstract

A hybrid nanowire (HNW) was constructed by coating a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) with piezoelectric zinc oxide (ZnO). The two components of the HNW interact with each other via the van der Waals (vdW) force. This paper aims to study the effect of the piezoelectricity in the ZnO layer and the inter-phase vdW interaction on the fundamental vibration of the HNWs. In doing this, a new model was developed where the two components of the HNWs were modeled as Euler beams coupled via the interphase vdW interaction. Based on the model, the dependence of the frequency on an applied electrical voltage was calculated for HNWs of different geometric sizes to reveal the voltage effect. The results were then compared with those calculated without considering the inter-phase vdW interaction. It was found that the interphase vdW interaction can substantially decrease the structural stiffness, leading to a greatly enhanced piezoelectric effect but a lower frequency for the vibration of the HNWs.

Keywords: Euler beam model; carbon nanotubes; hybrid nanowires; inter-phase van der Waals interaction; piezoelectric effect; vibration; zinc oxide coating layer.