ZnO nanostructure electrodeposited on flexible conductive fabric: A flexible photo-sensor

We fabricated a new type of flexible organic-inorganic hybrid material (ZnO/NCPF) by loading ZnO nanostructure on a polyethylene terephthalate fabric with Ni–Cu–Ni conducting layer (NCPF) by an electrodeposition method. This material was demonstrated to be able to operate as a flexible photo-sensor under solar light irradiation. The optimized sample which was prepared by electrodepositing ZnO onto NCPF for 3 h (ZnO(3 h)/NCPF) showed fast photo response and recovery times (0.821 and 1.257 s, respectively) and large on/off current density ratio (65.94) as a photo-sensor. These high performances were investigated to be attributed to the maximized photo-generation of charge carriers, formation of β-Ni(OH)2 and porous ZnO network on NCPF. Especially, porous ZnO network on NCPF was confirmed to play an important role as good supporter capable of providing faster photoelectron pathway and more reaction sites to produce photocurrent. Flexible conductive ZnO/NCPFs can be a representative model for realization of the practical ZnO hybrid materials as fabric type photo-sensor.