Enhancing detectivity of organic photodetectors through the biomass carbon quantum dots from sugarcane bagasse

In recent years, organic photodetectors (OPDs) have received sustained attention due to their tunable wavelength detection, low-cost manufacturing and compatibility with flexible devices. However, as the preparation process proceeds, organic materials inevitably produce some toxic by-products, which triggers an urgent need for green non-toxic optical materials. This paper reports a carbon quantum dot (CQDs) extracted from the green precursor sugarcane bagasse as the sole carbon source, and successfully applied in the OPDs with a structure of FTO/ZnO:CQDs/P3HT/MoO3/Ag for the first time. After CQDs incorporation, the surface of the ZnO thin films exhibits an increased density of oxygen vacancies and adsorbed oxygen. The resulting OPDs exhibit a high detectivity of 2.46 × 1011 Jones and a low noise equivalent power of 1.15 × 10−12 W @ 525 nm. The facile preparation method of CQDs offers a promising opportunity for the green and sustainable synthesis of advanced functional nanomaterials, and the successful demonstration paves new way for the advancement of high-performance OPDs.