High-Performance Photodetectors Based on Effective Exciton Dissociation in Protein-Adsorbed Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Nanohybrids

A novel MWCNT/Cyt c heterojunction nanohybrid uncooled IR photodetector has been demonstrated. The high-effective exciton dissociation derived from the heterojunction at the interface between MWCNT (donor) and Cyt c (acceptor) results in a remarkable NIR responsivity up to ≈0.30 A W−1 at room temperature. This value represents one to three orders of magnitudes improvement over that reported on CNT only NIR detectors and is attributed to the critical role of the interface heterojunctions in assisting exciton dissociation to photocurrent and combination of efficient charge transport of CNT (holes) and Cyt c (electrons). Consequently, high EQE up to 38.2% has been achieved on MWCNT/Cyt c heterojunction nanohybrid uncooled IR photodetectors, which represents a significant improvement by two orders of magnitude over the MWCNT only IR detectors. In addition to the high detectivity of 1.8 × 107 jones and fast photoresponse with response times of 1.5–2.7 ms, this result opens up a new potential direction through nanoscale interface design for exploration of high performance, low cost and flexible carbon-based optoelectronic nanohybrid