Nano-electro-mechanical conduct of boron nitride nanotube as piezoelectric nanogenerators and nanoswitches

This study investigates various aspects related to the Internet of Things (IoT) and piezoelectric nanoswitches applications, including the frequency band and set-up of piezoelectric nanogenerators, the electrical-mechanical interactions of nanoswitch arrays and their switching times. To address these issues, the molecular dynamics simulations conducted to investigate the performance of a boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) in piezoelectric nanogenerator and nanoswitch applications. For the piezoelectric nanogenerator, BNNT with a diameter-to-length ratio of 0.09 and subjected to 1% compressing exhibited a bistable configuration with a snap-through activation energy of 0.8 meV and a resonance frequency of 48 GHz. These resonance conditions can be achieved by millimeter-wave frequencies under the U-band (40–60 GHz), resulting in axial polarization of 4 mC.m⁻² and axial voltage of 13.4 volts. These results demonstrate the potential of BNNT as a broadband and non-linear piezoelectric nanogenerator. For piezoelectric nanoswitches applications, the BNNT zigzag type with a diameter-to-length ratio of 0.32 and subjected to 2.5% compressing displayed 0.017 C.m⁻² axial polarization, 22 V axial voltage, and a rapid switching time of approximately 2.0 ns.