Simple Fabrication and Characterization of Piezoelectric Nanogenerators from Cobalt-Doped Zinc Oxide Nanofibers

The ferromagnetic cobalt doped into Zinc Oxide (ZnO) crystals is a promising method for enhancing the performance of Piezoelectric-Based Nano Generators (PENGs). The study reports the characterization and testing PENGs which simply fabricated from cobalt-doped ZnO nanofibers (NFs) synthesized by electro spinning machine. The electro spinning processes were conducted at a flow rate of 4 μL/min and at various cobalt concentrations followed by sintering at a temperature of 500°C. The X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) spectra demonstrate that the crystalline diameter of Co-doped ZnO NFs increased as the content of cobalt increased, up to a concentration of 9%. Meanwhile, the maximum output voltage and power density of PENGs with Co-doped ZnO NFs were 221.6 mV and 148.8 nW/cm², respectively when the PENGs were subjected to a cyclic mechanical load of 0.5 kg. Therefore, PENGs fabricated from Co-doped ZnO NFs are challenging for the next generation of self-powered devices.