Metal compound semiconductors functionalized by polymers and their photosensitive properties

Design and preparation of photosensitive materials is important for a wide range of applications in solar cells, photocatalysts, photodetectors, and other optoelectronics devices. In recent decades, many photosensitive devices based on the polymer-functionalized metal compound semiconductors have attracted extensive attention and research. These devices combine the advantages of both polymers and metal compounds, and they show tremendously enhanced photosensitive performance compared with the individual components, even exhibiting some optoelectronic properties that are absent for the constituents. In this paper, we review recent developments including mechanisms of photosensitivity, various approaches to obtaining the polymer-functionalized metal compound semiconductors, the properties that are created or enhanced through the functionalization, and some of their applications.