Photonic device application of a self-driven MXene based nanocomposite

MXene based ternary composite photonic device was fabricated and characterized for the detection of different illuminations. The single chain polymer-cobalt phthallocyanine (SCP-CoPc) carrying metallised pthalocyanine macro ring was used as a polymer for the preparation of ternary composite. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) were used to differentiate MXene/ZnO/SCP-CoPc composite prepared. The presence of Ti, C, O, Zn and Co elements in the structure of the composite was confirmed by EDX. The electrical properties of planar interdigital coated MXene/ZnO/SCP-CoPc (1:1:1 by wt) were investigated for photovoltaic application. The photo-generated carriers contribute to the current flow, and the linear photoconductivity behaviour in current measurements with different illuminations such as 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 mW/cm2 indicates the possible photo device use of MXene/ZnO/SCP-CoPc nanocomposite. The photocurrent increased from 20 mA/cm2 to 100 mA/cm2 with the light intensity at 0.5 V was tuned from 28 to 280 μA. The forbidden energy gap (Eg) value of the MXene/ZnO/SCP-CoPc ternary composite from optical measurements was found to be 2.36 eV. Experimental results showed that the presence of SCP-CoPc and ZnO (zinc oxide) in the ternary nanocomposite increased the ε' and ε" values of MXene. The ε′ and ε″ of the ternary composite is 13.0, 26217 at 1 kHz and room temperature, respectively. The current-time results suggest that MXene based ternary composite photonic device is a self driven photodevice as the device can detect light without any external voltage bias.