ZnO nanowires based degradable high-performance photodetectors for eco-friendly green electronics

Disposable devices designed for single and/or multiple reliable measurements over a short duration have attracted con-siderable interest recently. However, these devices often use non-recyclable and non-biodegradable materials and wasteful fabrication methods. Herein, we present ZnO nanowires (NWs) based degradable high-performance UV photo -detectors (PDs) on flexible chitosan substrate. Systematic investigations reveal the presented device exhibits excellent photo response, including high responsivity (55 A/W), superior specific detectivity (4x1014 jones), and the highest gain (8.5x1010) among the reported state of the art biodegradable PDs. Further, the presented PDs display excellent mechan-ical flexibility under wide range of bending conditions and thermal stability in the measured temperature range (5-50 degrees C). The biodegradability studies performed on the device, in both deionized (DI) water (pH approximate to 6) and PBS solution (pH=7.4), show fast degradability in DI water (20 mins) as compared to PBS (48 h). These results show the potential the presented approach holds for green and cost-effective fabrication of wearable, and disposable sensing systems with reduced ad-verse environmental impact.