Zinc oxide nanorods assisted by polyaniline network as a flexible self-powered Ultraviolet photodetector: A comprehensive study

[Display omitted] •ZPN synthesized via an in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization methods.•The ZPN exhibited a core(ZnO)-shell(PANI) nanofibers cylindrical morphology.•Flexible Ultraviolet photodetectors (FUP) fabricated using the ZN and ZPN samples.•A Richardson constant of 2.124 × 10−3 A·cm−2·K−2 obtained for a FUP based on ZPN.•A self-powered FUP-ZPN (ZPP) displayed a superior stability of a fast UV switching.•The ZPP showed a reliable photoresponsivity toward different UV power densities.•The ZPP offers long-term stability of a novel self-powered FUP technology. In the present report, Zinc oxide nanorods (ZNs) and n-type ZnO/p-type polyaniline nanocomposite (ZPN) were synthesized. The prepared samples used as a flexible Ultraviolet photodetector (FUP). The characterization of the ZPN has shown the creation of the ZnO-polyaniline core–shell nanofibers with cylindrical morphology. A FUP based on the ZNs showed the photoresponsivity (RUV) of 13.04–19.25 mA/W under the UV light power density (PDis) of 0.8–12.47 mW/cm2. The photocurrent of a self-powered FUP based on the ZPN (ZPP) dramatically increases/decreases via switching on/off of the UV illumination at zero bias. The study of thermal effect on I–V characteristics of the ZPP displayed that the reverse saturation current and effective barrier height decrease with increasing q/kT. A Richardson constant of 2.124 × 10−3 A·cm−2·K−2 obtained for the ZPP. Moreover, the ZPP revealed Iph,Max 18.2 mA at the PDis of 12.47 mW/cm2. The results of photo-electrical features were exposed that a FUP based on the ZnO assisted by the polyaniline fibers can offer a reasonable level of long-term stability for effective commercialization of a novel, reliable and promising self-powered FUP technology. Finally, the possible mechanism of the devices through applying a standard thermionic emission-diffusion model and energy band diagram was discussed in detail.