Effect of ZnO on Stainless Steel Electrode for Piezeoelectric Application

Flexible piezoelectric generator can be used for energy harvesting from the human movement, walking, breathing or fingertip pressure. In this paper we have used ZnO nanoparticle composite with PDMS on flexible stainless steel (SS) substrate for energy harvesting application. Piezoelectric device performance was increased when SS substrate was modified with ZnO nanowires grown by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis. X-Ray Diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscope studies show that ZnO nanowires were grown on SS substrate and they are Wurtzite in nature. Capacitance value of the devices found to be 80 and 110 pF respectively and relative permittivity was found to be 5.32 and 5.57 respectively at 100 Hz. Responses of the devices were found to be 15.6 V_P-P and 27.2 V_P-P from the device due to impact of the fingertips.