Dramatic Responsivity Enhancement Through Concentrated H₂SO₄ Treatment on PEDOT:PSS/TiO₂ Heterojunction Fibrous Photodetectors

Abstract

In order to satisfy the growing requirements of wearable electronic devices, 1D fiber‐shaped devices with outstanding sensitivity, flexibility, and stability are urgently needed. In this study, a novel inorganic‐organic heterojunction fibrous photodetector (FPD) based on poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) and highly ordered TiO2 nanotube array is fabricated, which endows a high responsivity, large external quantum efficiency, and fast response speed at 3 V bias. To further ameliorate its performance in the self‐powered mode, a facile acid treatment is adopted and the assembled H‐PEDOT:PSS/TiO2 FPD demonstrates outstanding self‐powered properties with ≈3000% responsivity enhancement (161 mA W−1 at 0 V under 365 nm irradiation, photocurrent enhancement of ≈50 times) compared with the untreated device. It is found that the concentrated H2SO4 post‐treatment helps decrease the tube wall thickness of TiO2 and partially removes the insulated PSS component in PEDOT:PSS, leading to enhanced conductivity and facilitated charge transportation, and thereby superb responsivity/photocurrent enhancement of self‐powered H‐PEDOT:PSS/TiO2 FPD. This low‐cost and high‐performance self‐powered FPD shows high potential for applications in wearable electronic devices.

Soft Fiber Electronics Based on Semiconducting Polymer

“…Deng et al developed a new organic−inorganic hybrid PEDOT:PSS/TiO 2 FPD. 273 A simple concentrated H 2 SO 4 treatment increased the selfpowered response of FPD by approximately 3000% (161 mA W −1 , under 0 V UV irradiation at 365 nm) and the photocurrent by almost 50 times, as shown as Figure 12h. This work presents a new concept for high-performance organic−inorganic hybrid FPDs with remarkable potential in practical applications.…”

“…Copyright 2020 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (h) Schematic illustration of self-powered H-PEDOT:PSS/TiO 2 FPD and responsivity enhancement compared with PEDOT:PSS/TiO 2 FPD. Reproduced with permission from ref . Copyright 2021 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (i) Recovery times curves of self-powered W/ZnO/P3HT/PEDOT:PSS/alginate fiber FPD under 0 and 1 V bias.…”

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Enhanced performance of ZnO microwire/PEDOT:PSS heterojunction ultraviolet photodetectors via carbon nanohorns and DMSO treatment

“…19,22,23 Recently, various methods have been used to modulate the electrical properties of PEDOT:PSS samples, like rapid thermal annealing, structure engineering, post treatment using acids, etc. [24][25][26][27][28] For example, Yong et al employed a PEDOT:PSS film as the electrode to prepare solar cells. By introducing thermal post-treatment on the PEDOT:PSS electrode, the power conversion efficiency increased from 2% to 2.54%, and the series resistance decreased from 30.4 to 16.4 ohm cm 2 .…”

“…The photodetection performances were significantly improved, including a 3000% responsivity enhancement and 50 times photocurrent increment. 25 Wang et al synthesized PEDOT using an oxidative chemical vapor deposition method and applied hydrobromic acid treatment to treat the film. The conductivity reached up to a record-high value of 6259 S cm À1 after the engineering process.…”