Piezoelectric nanotubes are applicable to many areas including sensors, actuators, and energy storage. Before these applications can be realized using nanoscale components, a study is needed to characterize the piezoelectric-properties of nanotube geometries versus the piezoelectric-properties of a thin-film of the same material (not shown here). The material used in this study is (PZT) lead-zirconate-titanate, PbZr0.5Ti0.48O3. In this work, 200nm diameter PZT structures are manufactured by a template wetting procedure. These ceramic nanotubes are brittle but hold up well inside the alumina template structure. Having an array of nanometer-sized piezoelectric-tubes has been hypothesized to give comparable results to that of thin-films of the same material. The research described in this paper is a preliminary step towards testing this hypothesis via characterization and later producing piezoelectric-nanoscale-sensors, which are both small and efficient.
Electrostatic capacitance of TiO2nanowires in a porous alumina template
