Self-powered Ultraviolet(UV) Sensor

Small, maintenance-free, moveable self-powered systems, such as self-powered sensors, are greatly desired and have a vast application prospect. The self-powered system could harvest energy from ambient sources and convert them into electricity to power electrical devices. The self-powered system can work continuously and independently, without the need of external electric power source. The self-powered system could play an important role in lots of fields, such as military defense, medical devices, wireless sensor systems, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), nanorobots and personal electronics. In this dissertation, the energy harvesting component and the sensor component of the self-powered system were studied. The nanogenerator was used to collect ambient mechanical energy. We studied the single nanowire nanogenerator based on monocrystal lead zirconate titanate (PZT) with high piezoelectric coefficient and the two dimensional woven nanogenerator based on ZnO nanowire/fiber hybrid structure. As for the sensor component, we studied the ZnO nanowire based high performance UV sensor and its integration strategy in large scale. Furthermore, we combined the nanogenerator with a UV sensor to demonstrate a self-powered UV sensor. Finally, we developed a new driven method to make the self-powered system moveable, which makes it more versatile.