Facile aqueous growth of 150 nm ZnO nanowires for energy harvester: Enhanced output voltage using Pt sputtered electrode

Facile aqueous growth technique was adopted to grow diameter controlled 150 nm ZnO nanowires on an ITO (indium tin oxide) coated PET (poly ethylene terephthalate) substrate. Prior to nanowire growth, a pure wurtazite structured ZnO seed layer was grown on PET substrates. Surface morphology and elemental composition were investigated by SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and EDS (energy dispersive spectroscopy) respectively. An enhanced output piezoelectric potential of 1.858 with an output power density 215.4 mW/cm2 was achieved using a Pt sputtered electrode. We have obtained enhanced values of output voltage compared to our previously reported voltage values of 1.34 V (Ahmad et al. 2014).