Synthesis of Ni-Doped ZnO Nanorod Arrays by Chemical Bath Deposition and Their Application to Nanogenerators

Abstract

Nanogenerators (NGs) based on Ni-doped ZnO (NZO) nanorod (NR) arrays were fabricated and explored in this study. The ZnO films were grown on indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrates, and the NZO NRs were prepared by the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. The samples were investigated via field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectral analysis. The results showed that the growth of NRs presented high-density single crystalline structures and were preferentially oriented in the c-axis direction. The optical characteristics of the NZO NRs were also measured by photoluminescence (PL) spectra. All samples exhibited two different emissions, including ultraviolet (UV) and green emissions. ITO etching paste was used to define patterns, and an electrode of Au film was evaporated onto the ITO glass substrates by the electron beam evaporation technique to assemble the NG device. In summary, ZnO NRs with Ni dopant (5 mM) showed significantly excellent performance in NGs. The optimal measured voltage, current, and power for the fabricated NGs were 0.07 V, 10.5 µA, and 735 nW, respectively.