A ZnO sol–gel precursor (ZnOPr) and graphene nanoplatelets
(GnPs) are mixed into a composite ink for inkjet printing photodetectors
with bulk heterojunctions of ZnO/GnP on a heated SiO2/Si
substrate. Heating of the SiO2/Si wafers at ∼50
°C was found optimal to prevent segregated droplets on the hydrophobic
surface of the SiO2/Si substrate during printing. After
printing the ZnO/GnP channels, thermal annealing at 350 °C for
2 h was performed for crystallization of ZnO and formation of the
ZnO/GnP heterojunctions. The GnP concentration was varied from 0,
5, 20, and 30 mM to evaluate optimal formation of the ZnO/GnP bulk
heterojunction nanocomposites based on ultraviolet photoresponse performance.
The best performance was observed at the 20 mM GnP concentration with
the photoresponsivity reaching 2.2 A/W at an incident ultraviolet
power of 2.2 μW and a 5 V bias. This photoresponsivity is an
order of magnitude better than the previously reported counterparts,
including 0.13 mA/W for dropcasted ZnO-graphite composites and much
higher than 0.5 A/W for aerosol printed ZnO. The improved performance
is attributed to the ZnO/GnP bulk heterojunctions with improved interfaces
that enable efficient exciton dissociation and the charge transport.
The developed inkjet printing of sol–gel composite inks approach
can be scalable and low cost for practical applications.