Modified Stranski-Krastanov Growth of Amino Acid Arrays toward Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

Hui Yuan, Yu Chen, Ruikang Lin, Dan Tan, Jiaojiao Zhang, Yongmei Wang, Ehud Gazit*, Wei Ji*, Rusen Yang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Biomolecule-based piezoelectric nanostructures emerged as a new class of energy-converse materials, and designing tailored piezoelectric amino acid arrays is essential to achieve efficient electrical-mechanical coupling and fulfill their application potential. However, the controlled growth of amino acid nanostructures is still challenging due to the limited understanding of their growth mechanism. Herein, we base on the Stranski-Krastanov (S-K) growth mode and propose a mechanism for the growth of ordered amino acid array structures via physical vapor deposition. The growth of vertical valine sheet arrays is examined by changing the substrate temperature, chamber pressure, and source-substrate distance, and a "layer-plus-sheet"growth process is revealed. The modified S-K growth mode is applied to fabricate other amino acid nanostructures like leucine and isoleucine. The growth mode not only explains the formation of uniform and controllable morphology of amino acid structures but also leads to the significant enhancement of their piezoelectric properties. The maximal effective piezoelectric constant of valine sheets is 11.4 pm V-1, which approaches its highest predicted value. The output voltage of the valine array-based nanogenerator is ∼4.6 times the output voltage of the valine powder-based nanogenerator. This work provides new insights into the growth mechanism of ordered piezoelectric amino acid arrays, making them promising candidates for applications in wearable or implantable electronic devices.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)46304-46312
Number of pages9
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume14
Issue number41
DOIs
StatePublished - 19 Oct 2022

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Natural Science Foundation of China52103148, 51973170, 52192610, 3145/19
Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of ChinaSQ2021YFE010405
Israel Science Foundation
China Scholarship Council202006960032, cx2021055
Xidian University21103200005
Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province2019JCW-17, 2020JCW-15
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central UniversitiesJC2107, 2022CDJXY-026, 2021CDJQY-021

    Keywords

    • Stranski-Krastanov growth
    • aliphatic amino acids
    • nanogenerators
    • ordered arrays
    • piezoelectricity

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