Piezoelectric properties of ZnO

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an exceptional material that displays multiple semiconducting, piezoelectric, and pyroelectric properties. Employing a solid-vapor phase thermal sublimation technique, nanocombs, nanorings, nanohelixes/nanosprings, nanobows, nanobelts, nanowires, and nanocages of ZnO have been produced under precise growing environments. These exclusive nanostructures recognizably validate that ZnO is perhaps the richest family of nanostructures amongst all materials, both in structures and properties. The nanostructures can have unique applications in optoelectronics, sensors, transducers, and biomedical science since it is biosafe. This chapter delivers an inclusive review of the present research activities that center on ZnO nanostructure materials and their physical property characterizations. It initiates with the synthetic approaches that have been used to grow ZnO nanostructures. These studies establish the foundations for the emerging adaptable applications of ZnO nanostructures. Since the innovation of oxide nanobelts of semiconducting oxides in 2001 investigation into functional oxide-based, one-dimensional nanostructures has promptly expanded because of their exclusive and original applications in optics, optoelectronics, catalysis, and piezoelectricity. Semiconducting oxide nanobelts are an exceptional class of quasi-one-dimensional nanomaterials, which have been methodically studied for an extensive array of materials with different chemical configurations and crystallographic structures. An enormous number of piezoelectric materials have been confirmed since the detection of piezoelectricity over a century ago. The use of nanostructured piezoelectrics, though, is a comparatively current development, and the understanding of the nanoscale size effects on ferro- and piezoelectricity is still being articulated