Resistive switching behaviour of nickel nanoparticle-embedded naphthalene sulphonic acid-doped polyaniline nanocomposites

Abstract

Abstract Hybrid nanocomposite (NC) materials comprising organic polymers and inorganic metal nanoparticles (NPs) with unique properties are popular for their advanced technological applications including resistive switching memory devices. Herein, NCs of 2-naphthalene sulphonic acid-doped polyaniline nanotubes (PANI-NSA NTs) and nickel nanoparticles (Ni NPs) were synthesized via a facile chemical synthesis procedure where metallic Ni NPs were embedded in/deposited onto the surface of PANI-NSA NTs by a simple reduction method. Different characterization methods revealed successful deposition of weak ferromagnetic Ni NPs onto the PANI-NSA matrix. The bipolar resistive switching behaviour of the as-synthesized PANI-NSA + Ni NCs was investigated under the application of voltage stress in a two-terminal sandwiched device configuration. The fabricated indium tin oxide/PANI-NSA + Ni/silver (ITO/PANI-NSA + Ni/Ag) device displays bipolar resistive switching properties having a memory window of ∼1.5 × 103, and switches effectively over 200 cycles. Ohmic conduction in the lower-voltage regime and the space-charge-limited Mott–Gurney current conduction model in the higher-voltage region were identified as major charge conduction mechanisms in the high resistive state of the device. On the other hand, in the entire low resistive state region the experimental data followed the Mott–Gurney conduction model.