Enhancement in the Microelectronic Properties of PANI/n-Si Heterojunction by Employing ZnO Nanoparticles

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This paper explores the significance of inorganic semiconductor zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) in enhancing the microelectronic of a semiconducting polymer polyaniline (PANI) for its applications in heterojunction devices. The hybrid PANI-ZnO nanocomposite (NC) possesses both characteristics of the conducting polymer PANI as well as the inorganic ZnO NPs. The Ag/PANI-ZnO/TiO2/n-Si heterojunction device is fabricated via simple spin coating technique by depositing a thin layer of PANI-ZnO NC on pre-deposited TiO2 layer/n-silicon (n-Si) substrate. TiO2 acts as buffer layer between n-Si and PANI-ZnO NC films to facilitate electron transport at the interface. To study microelectronic properties of the fabricated Ag/PANI-ZnO/TiO2/n-Si heterojunction, current-voltage (I–V) characteristics are carried out at 300 K in dark conditions (0 lux). The dark I–V curves of the device show asymmetric behavior with a rectification ratio (RR) of 193 at ±2.5 V that testifies the formation of heterojunction device. The governing interface parameters of the device such as series resistance (Rs), shunt resistance (Rsh), ideality factor (n), charge carrier mobility (μ) and barrier height (ϕ b) are measured by conventional I-V method to investigate the interface properties of the heterojunction based on PANI-ZnO NC. Results obtained show that the application of ZnO NPs enhances the microelectronic characteristics of the device as compared to stand-alone polymer devices. The measured device parameters are verified by the Cheungs’ functions and charge carriers’ conduction mechanism is probed by Mott-Gurney model. Structural, optical bandgap and morphological features of PANI-ZnO NC are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet-visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well as atomic force microscopy (AFM).

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