UV-Assisted Photochemical Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide/ZnO Nanowires Composite for Photoresponse Enhancement in UV Photodetectors

The weak photon absorption and high recombination rate of electron-hole pairs in disordered zinc oxide nanowires (ZNWs) limit its application in UV photodetection. This limitation can be overcome by introducing graphene sheets to the ZNWs. Herein we report a high-performance photodetector based on one-dimensional (1D) wide band-gap semiconductor disordered ZNWs composited with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) for ultraviolet (UV) photoresponse enhancement. The RGO/ZNWs composites have been successfully synthetized through UV-assisted photochemical reduction of GO in ZNWs suspension. The material characterizations in morphology, Raman scattering, and Ultraviolet-visible light absorption verified the formation of graphene sheets attached in ZNWs network and the enhancement of UV absorption due to the introduction of graphene. In comparison with photodetectors based on pure ZNWs, the photodetectors based on RGO/ZNWs composite exhibit enhanced photoresponse with photocurrent density of 5.87 mA·cm-2, on/off current ratio of 3.01 × 10⁴, and responsivity of 1.83 A·W-1 when a UV irradiation of 3.26 mW·cm-2 and 1.0 V bias were used. Theory analysis is also presented to get insight into the inherent mechanisms of separation and transportation of photo-excited carriers in RGO/ZNWs composite.