Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes as a Promising Material for the Creation of Piezoelectric Nanogenerators

The development of miniature autonomous power sources for personal electronics and the Internet of things is one of the urgent tasks of modern science. A promising direction in this area is powering such devices by harvesting and converting the mechanical energy of the environment into electrical energy. This study investigates the ability of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) to convert and store mechanical energy into electrical energy to create piezoelectric nanogenerators. It is shown that N-CNTs under conditions of constant vibration noise generate a surface potential and a corresponding current of about 33 nA throughout the entire exposure time without a tendency to decrease in current value. It is established that a potential barrier is formed at the boundaries of the side wall of N-CNTs with bamboo-like bridges, which allows the storage of a piezoelectric charge induced during nanotube deformation. This fact opens up wide opportunities for creating a miniature power source based on N-CNTs, combining the possibility of converting and accumulating mechanical energy of the environment.