Optimizing the optical response of polypyrrol nanofibers by decoration with ZnO nanoparticles

In this work, a conductive polymer (polypyrrol) was prepared using the electrochemical polymerization method. FE-SEM has been performed to investigate the morphologies of polypyrrol. The results of FE-SEM illustrate the network nature of the polypyrrol nanofibers (PPy). The nanocomposites were obtained by decorating PPy nanofibers with volume ratios of ZnO nanoparticle ( 10% , 20% , 30% , and 40%). A clear change in the nanocomposite structure was observed upon adding ZnO with PPy, the flower-like particles on the surface of the nanofibres network were gradually grown. The resulting composites were used to improve the sensitivity of the photodetector, where the higher sensitivity of the pure PPy was (29.0 %) at a light power of 30 mW for laser diode 720 nm. While when PPy was decorated with ZnO, the sensitivity was around (167.4 %) when doped PPy with (10% ZnO). The rise time was 2.5sec, while the fall time was 3ses.