While global energy consumption has steadily increased in the past decades due to industrialization and population growth, [ 1 ] society is facing a problem with the depletion of fossil energy resources as well as environmental problems (such as global warming, carbon dioxide emissions, and damage to the ozone layer). [ 2 ] These challenges can be addressed by renewable energy resources, which are always available everywhere. [ 1 , 2 ] Outdoor renewable energy sources such as solar energy (15 000 μ W/cm 3 ), [ 3 , 4 ] wind energy (380 μ W/cm 3 ), [ 5 ] and wave energy (1 000 W/cm of wave crest length) [ 6 , 7 ] can provide largescale needs of power. However, for driving small electronics in indoor or concealed environments [ 3 , 8 ] (such as in tunnels, clothes, and artifi cial skin) and implantable biomedical devices, innovative approaches have to be developed.One way of energy harvesting without such restraints is to utilize piezoelectric materials that can convert vibrational and mechanical energy sources from human activities such as pressure, bending, and stretching motions into electrical energy. [9][10][11] Wang and co-workers [ 9 , 10 , 12-15 ] have used piezoelectric ZnO nanowire arrays to develop a nanogenerator technologies, who have demonstrated the feasibility using this type of generator to power commercial light-emitting diodes (LEDs), [ 13 ] liquid crystal displays, [ 14 ] and wireless data transmission. [ 15 ] These nanogenerators can also convert tiny bits of biomechanical energy (from sources such as the movement of the diaphragm, the relaxation and contraction of muscle, heartbeat, and the circulation of blood) into power sources. [ 16 , 17 ] Recently, there have been attempts to fabricate thin fi lmtype nanogenerators [ 11 , 18 ] with perovskite ceramic materials (PbZr x Ti 1-x O 3 and BaTiO 3 ), which have a high level of inherent piezoelectric properties. The BaTiO 3 thin fi lm nanogenerator has demonstrated by the authors [ 11 ] using the transfer process [19][20][21][22] of high temperature annealed perovskite thin fi lm from bulk substrates onto fl exible substrates; it generates a much higher level of power density than other devices with a similar structure. [ 10 ] Herein, we report the nanocomposite generator (NCG) achieving a simple, low-cost, and large area fabrication based on BaTiO 3 nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized via a hydrothermal reaction (see Method S1) [ 23 ] and graphitic carbons, such as single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SW/MW-CNTs), and reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The BaTiO 3 NPs and carbon nanomaterials are dispersed in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) by mechanical agitation to produce a piezoelectric nanocomposite (p-NC). The p-NC is spin-casted onto metalcoated plastic substrates and cured in an oven. Under periodic external mechanical deformation by bending stage or biomechanical movements from fi nger/feet of human body, electric signals are repeatedly generated from the NCG device and used to operate a commercial red LED.The schematic diagrams ...

A hybrid-fiber nanogenerator comprising a ZnO nanowire array, PVDF polymer and two electrodes is presented. Depending on the bending or spreading action of the human arm, at an angle of ∼90°, the hybrid fiber reaches electrical outputs of ∼0.1 V and ∼10 nA cm(-2) . The unique structure of the hybrid fiber may inspire future research in wearable energy-harvesting technology.

Perovskite ferroelectric nanowires have rarely been used for the conversion of tiny mechanical vibrations into electricity, in spite of their large piezoelectricity. Here we present a lead-free NaNbO(3) nanowire-based piezoelectric device as a high output and cost-effective flexible nanogenerator. The device consists of a NaNbO(3) nanowire-poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) polymer composite and Au/Cr-coated polymer films. High-quality NaNbO(3) nanowires can be grown by hydrothermal method at low temperature and can be poled by an electric field at room temperature. The NaNbO(3) nanowire-PDMS polymer composite device shows an output voltage of 3.2 V and output current of 72 nA (current density of 16 nA/cm(2)) under a compressive strain of 0.23%. These results imply that NaNbO(3) nanowires should be quite useful for large-scale lead-free piezoelectric nanogenerator applications.

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The first integration of multiple energy harvesters and a storage device along single fiber using ZnO nanowires (NWs) and graphenes as the basic materials is reported. This energy generation and storage device allows simultaneous harvesting of solar and mechanical energy. The unique architecture of fiber‐based electrodes and use of ZnO NWs, and graphenes as active material and electrodes could be useful for the future development of flexible and wearable electronics.