Dr. Christos Tsamis Dr Christos Tsamis is Director of Research at the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Athens, Greece. His research interests focus on Nanostructured materials and devices for Energy harvesting, Chemical Sensors, Micro- and Nanofabrication technologies for Microsystems and Thermal processes for micro- and nanodevices. He is/was Scientific Responsible and/or Coordinator for several National and EU projects in the above topics and has participated in several others as a key researcher. He acted as General Conference Chairman for EUROSENSORS XXV that took take place in Athens. He is the author or co-author of over 150 publications in peer-reviewed International Journals, Conference Proceedings and contributions in International Conferences. He has edited 3 Conference Proceedings Volumes
Mechanical energy scavenging using low-dimensional piezoelectric elements has emerged as a promising technique for the energy autonomy of sensors, microsystems and small portable electronic devices. Among these low-dimensional materials, ZnO nanostructures and nanotextured films have become the leading star demonstrating a new pathway for harvesting energy for self-powered wireless nanodevices and nanosystems. Due to its low fabrication cost at the wafer scale and its applicability to a variety of substrates, low-temperature, user- and-environmentally-friendly all-solution based growth of ZnO nanostructures and nanotextured films has been successfully applied for the development of nanogenerators on flexible substrates, including PET, Kapton, wax paper and carton. In this work, we will highlight the advances in flexible nanogenerator technology and the future trends towards efficient mechanical energy haversting.