NGPT History

Nanogenerators and piezotronics are new emerging research areas in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology related to new energy and novel electronics. Ever since their coining in 2006, both fields have shown great promises for powering and designing of new energy, sensors, electronic, optoelectronic, photovoltaic, and catalytic systems with applications in internet of things, artificial intelligence, sensor network and big data. The invention of nanogenerators has demonstrated a powerful and versatile approach to scavenging mechanical energy from our living environment and human motion for powering small electronics and building self-powered sensors, which is now important for flexible electronics and wearable electronics. Piezotronics is a new field that deals with the tuning of electronic and photonic processes using the piezoelectric polarization charges at interfaces for applications in advanced human-machine interfacing and hugely improved LED and solar cell performances. These fields are particularly important now because they are closely related to the intrinsic properties of the third generation semiconductors.

To promote the development of nanogenerators and piezotronics and exchange scientific information, the first international conference on nanogenerators and piezotronics (NGPT) was initiated in Beijing, China, in 2012. The second NGPT was held at Atlanta USA in 2014 (http://www.ngpt.mse.gatech.edu/), and the third NGPT was held at Rome Italy in 2016 (http://ngpt.uniroma2.it/), and the fourth NGPT was held at Seoul Korea in 2018 (http://www.ngpt2018.org/). The 2018 NGPT attracted over 400 participants with more than 300 papers contributed to the conference. Today, there are over 400 units across 40 countries worldwide with more than 3000 people who are actively engaged in the research of nanogenerators and piezotronics. The NGPT is a platform for not only inspiring development of new science, technology and commercial applications, but also pushing forward international collaboration related to the fields. 

Founding chair of NGPT: professor Zhong Lin Wang
Georgia Institute of Technology, and Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems.