Chiropiezoelectric Energy Harvesting from Lattice-Handedness-Controlled Selenium Nanowires

Abstract

The growth of wearable electronics, soft robotics, and Internet-of-Things systems has intensified the demand for inorganic piezoelectric materials that harvest weak biomechanical energy. Advances through composition optimization, defect engineering, strain engineering, and orientation control have improved existing electromechanical responses, but have not introduced a new mechanism for enhancing piezoelectricity. Here we propose atomic chirality engineering as a design principle for inorganic piezoelectric nanomaterials. Unlike conventional strategies that modify composition or morphology, atomic chirality alters the handedness of the crystal lattice itself, adding a degree of freedom for controlling dipole alignment, electromechanical coupling, and potentially spin-dependent transport. Using atomically chiral trigonal selenium nanowires as a model system, we show that crystal handedness alone changes piezoelectric performance at identical chemical composition. Piezoresponse force microscopy resolved a consistent enantiomeric difference, with right-handed D-Se nanowires reaching a higher effective piezoelectric coefficient than their left-handed counterparts, and flexible nanogenerators and self-powered acoustic sensors built from the two enantiomers produced distinct outputs under identical deformation. This work establishes atomic chirality as a distinct route for designing piezoelectric materials, one that may extend across non-centrosymmetric inorganic semiconductors for sustainable energy harvesting and wearable sensing.