Printing Quasi-1D Nanomaterials for Large-Area Flexible UV Photodetectors

Quasi-1D ZnO nanowire (NW) is one of the most promising materials for sensing applications because of its high surface to volume ratio and high sensitivity to external stimulus. Due to their low dimension nature, the NWs are also excellent candidates for flexible electronics. In this work, we used a printing method to achieve highly aligned ZnO NWs on polyimide substrate for flexible UV photodetector application. The as-fabricated devices shows high photo to dark current ratio up to 10
⁶
and exhibits a stable performance under extensive mechanical bending tests up to 1000 cycles. This work is believed to advance the research on large area flexible electronics.