Pyroelectric Nanogenerator Based on an SbSI-TiO 2 Nanocomposite.

For the first time, a composite of ferroelectric antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) nanowires and non-ferroelectric titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticles was applied as a pyroelectric nanogenerator. SbSI nanowires were fabricated under ultrasonic treatment. Sonochemical synthesis was performed in the presence of TiO 2 nanoparticles. The mean lateral dimension d a = 68(2) nm and the length L a = 2.52(7) µm of the SbSI nanowires were determined. TiO 2 nanoparticles served as binders in the synthesized nanocomposite, which allowed for the preparation of dense films via the simple drop-casting method. The SbSI-TiO 2 nanocomposite film was sandwiched between gold and indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes. The Curie temperature of T C = 294(2) K was evaluated and confirmed to be consistent with the data reported in the literature for ferroelectric SbSI. The SbSI-TiO 2 device was subjected to periodic thermal fluctuations. The measured pyroelectric signals were highly correlated with the temperature change waveforms. The magnitude of the pyroelectric current was found to be a linear function of the temperature change rate. The high value of the pyroelectric coefficient p = 264(7) nC/(cm 2 ·K) was determined for the SbSI-TiO 2 nanocomposite. When the rate of temperature change was equal dT / dt = 62.5 mK/s, the maximum and average surface power densities of the SbSI-TiO 2 nanogenerator reached 8.39(2) and 2.57(2) µW/m 2 , respectively.