Nano-electro-mechanical conduct of boron nitride nanotube as piezoelectric nanogenerators and nanoswitches

N Ertekin, SMART MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES, 33, 025037 (2024).

DOI: 10.1088/1361-665X/ad1fa8

This study investigates various aspects related to the Internet of Things (IoT) and piezoelectric nanoswitches applications, including the frequency band and set-up of piezoelectric nanogenerators, the electrical-mechanical interactions of nanoswitch arrays and their switching times. To address these issues, the molecular dynamics simulations conducted to investigate the performance of a boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) in piezoelectric nanogenerator and nanoswitch applications. For the piezoelectric nanogenerator, BNNT with a diameter- to-length ratio of 0.09 and subjected to 1% compressing exhibited a bistable configuration with a snap-through activation energy of 0.8 meV and a resonance frequency of 48 GHz. These resonance conditions can be achieved by millimeter-wave frequencies under the U-band (40-60 GHz), resulting in axial polarization of 4 mC.m-2 and axial voltage of 13.4 volts. These results demonstrate the potential of BNNT as a broadband and non-linear piezoelectric nanogenerator. For piezoelectric nanoswitches applications, the BNNT zigzag type with a diameter-to- length ratio of 0.32 and subjected to 2.5% compressing displayed 0.017 C.m-2 axial polarization, 22 V axial voltage, and a rapid switching time of approximately 2.0 ns.

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