Electrochemical Preparation of ZnO/PEDOT‐Type Conducting Polymers Composites for Ultraviolet Photodetector

Generally, the ultraviolet photodetector devices based on ZnO/PEDOT composites were fabricated by spin coating of PEDOT solutions on ZnO nanorods array, which needs the polymer disperesed in solvent. In this paper, an electrochemical deposition method was proposed for the prepparation of ZnO/PEDOT‐type conducting polymers composites for ultraviolet photodetector. The poly(3,4‐proplene‐dioxythiophene) (PProDOT) and poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxy‐thiophene)(PEDOT) were selected as PEDOT‐type conducting polymers. The structure of composite materials was characterized by UV‐vis, XRD, Raman, SEM,EDS and XPS analysis. The effects of different polymers on the UV sensing ability of ZnO nanorods were studied. The structural results showed that the composites were successfully prepared by electrochemical deposition method indicating that the electrochecmial method was an effective way to prepraration of this type composites.The photoelectric performance test showed that the structure of the polymer chain affected the responsiveness of the materials, and the response time of ZnO/PProDOT was 14 s shorter than that of ZnO/PEDOT, and it displayed an excellent long‐term stability. After deposition of PProDOT, the UV responsivity of ZnO nanorods was increased from 2.5 A W−1 to 27.5 A W−1, and the external quantum efficiency and detectivity were significantly improved, implying that the PProDOT can be ideal candidate material for ultraviolet photodetector. Poly(3,4‐proplene‐dioxythiophene) (PProDOT) and poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxy‐thiophene) (PEDOT) were electrochemically deposited on the hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorod array to fabricate ZnO/PProDOT and ZnO/PEDOT composites and to evaluate the effect of different polymers on the ultraviolet light sensing. The stronger synergistic effect in ZnO/PProDOT than that of ZnO/PEDOT enabled the composite to have better ultraviolet responsiveness with excellent long‐term stability under the irradiation of 365 nm ultraviolet light.