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Enhanced photodetection properties of GO incorporated flexible PVDF membranes under solar spectrum

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Abstract

Here we report the enhanced photodetection capabilities of graphene oxide (GO) incorporated highly flexible polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes when illuminated by solar spectrum. Free-standing and β-crystalline PVDF membranes with varied amount of GO (~ 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) are fabricated by easy and cost-effective chemical synthesis technique. Significant improvement in dark current as well as solar photocurrent is observed while very small amount of GO are added into the host PVDF matrix at different proportions. For wide band of solar spectrum having input light power of 1 sun (100 mW/cm2), the responsivity for pristine PVDF arises out to be 0.004 µA/cm2/W with response time of ~ 44 s. Due to addition of GO into PVDF the photocurrent and photoresponsivity increased while the response time decreased. Maximum responsivity of 0.026 µA/cm2/W is observed for PVDF/GO (15%) with response time of ~ 21 s. When measured in bending state the flexible polymer composite membranes exhibit better photocurrent compared to their relief condition which is attributed to the piezo-phototronic effect. Complex impedance spectroscopic study at room temperature in dark and light clearly indicates the facilitation of charge transport due to modification of grain boundaries which in turn enhances the photocurrent in PVDF/GO composite membranes making them suitable for flexible photovoltaic and piezo-phototronic devices.

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Acknowledgements

ESK wishes to thank Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Government of India for providing research fellowship (File no. 08/ 155(0070)/2019-EMR-I. RNG wishes to thank Department of Higher Education, Science & Technology and Biotechnology, Government of West Bengal (File no. – ST/P/S&T/4G-3/2017) for financial support to carry out this work. We are also thankful to central instrumentation laboratory and Departemnt of Chemistry, University of Kalyani for their kind help in SEM and FTIR measurement.

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  1. Department of Physics, Presidency University, 86/1 College Street, Kolkata, 700073, India

    E. S. Kadir & R. N. Gayen

  2. Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700032, India

    R. N. Gayen

  3. Department of Physics, IIEST Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal, 711103, India

    M. Pal Chowdhury

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Kadir, E.S., Gayen, R.N. & Chowdhury, M.P. Enhanced photodetection properties of GO incorporated flexible PVDF membranes under solar spectrum. J Polym Res 29, 529 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-022-03364-0

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