Morphology-dependent field emission investigations from the 2-dimensional Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposites

•We have synthesized pristine Bi2Se3 and Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposites via hydrothermal route.•The Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposite emitter exhibits superior field emission properties compared to the pristine Bi2Se3 emitter.•For the Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposite emitter, the turn-on and threshold fields are lowered by ∼37% compared to the corresponding field values for the pristine Bi2Se3 emitter.•At an applied field of ∼3.5 V/µm, the observed current density for Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposite emitter is ∼100 times larger than that observed for the pristine Bi2Se3 emitter. The two-dimensional bismuth selenide (Bi2Se3)-reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanocomposite have been synthesized by simple hydrothermal route for carrying out field emission (FE) studies. The Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposite field emitters exhibit enhancement in the current densityas compared to pristine Bi2Se3emitter. The turn-on field for Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposite field emitter decreases by ∼37% of its value for pristine Bi2Se3 emitters. The maximum current density observed from the Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposite field emitter is ∼1000 µA/cm2 at an applied field of 6.0 V/μm. The influence of Se weight percentage in the Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposite has been studied to understand the field emission behavior via morphological changes of the emitter surface. The Bi2Se3-RGO nanocomposite structure is thus seen as a prospective candidate for the development of efficient nanoscale field emission devices.