Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Research Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matresbu PPV derivative/ZnO nanorods heterojunction: Fabrication, Characterization and Near-UV light sensor development Dhouha Jemmeli a,b , Marwa Belhaj a , Balkis Ben Salem c , Nejmeddine Jaballah c , Roman Yatskiv d , Chérif Dridi a, ⁎ , Jan Grym d , Mustapha Majdoub c a NANOMISENE Laboratory LR16CRMN01, Center for Research in Microelectronics and Nanotechnology of Sousse, Technopark of Sousse, B.P. 334, Tunisia b University of Sousse, High School of Sciences and Technology of Hammam Sousse, 4011 Sousse, Tunisia c Laboratory of Interfaces and Advanced Materials, University of Monastir. Faculty of Sciences, Bd. of the Environment, 5019 Monastir, Tunisia d Institute of Photonics and Electronics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Chaberska 57, 18251 Prague 8, Czech Republic ARTICLE INFO Keywords: PPV-C 6 ZnO NRs Hybrid heterojunction SEM Photoluminescence UV light sensors J–V characteristics ABSTRACT Poly(1,4-phenylenevinylene) derivative (PPV-C 6 ) based solution was spin-coated onto hydrothermally grown and vertically aligned ZnO nanorods (ZnO NRs).The morphological and the optical properties of the PPV-C 6 /ZnO NRs hybrid heterojunction have been studied and shown a penetration of PPV-C 6 into the interspaces between the ZnO NRs with enhanced excitonic dissociation. The current–voltage characteristics in dark and under 395 nm LED illumination have been analyzed. A short-circuit current J sc of 4691.42 μA/cm 2 , an open-circuit voltage V oc of 0.46 V giving rise to a responsivity of about 29.32 mA/W have been obtained for the illuminated graphite/ PPV-C6/ZnO NRs/Si/EGa-In structure based near UV light sensor showing an enhanced responsivity by a factor of about 200 compared with bare ZnO NRs based one. We have succeeded in the development of low cost near- UV light sensors by simple low temperature hydrothermal method using eco-friendly, low cost and easily fab- ricated electrodes. 1. Introduction In recent years, low cost UV photodetectors with high sensitivity, good wavelength selectivity and high responsivity have attracted great atten- tions [1], which have been used in a various range of military and civil applications; such as pollution monitoring, medicine and optical commu- nication [2]. New photodetectors designs with various device structures were realized to ameliorate the photoresponse of the UV photodetectors [3–8]. Nanostructured semiconductor materials such as metal oxide na- nostructures with broad band gap energy are considered as promising candidates for the UV photodetector development [5,9,10]. Particularly ZnO nanostructures have been catching special attention due to their non- toxicity, high electron mobility, wide band gap (3.37 eV) at room tem- perature, high exciton energy (60 meV) also tunable physical properties with the nanostructure dimensions, surface modification and the possibi- lity of doping [11–14]. They have been extensively employed in various applications such as solar cells, optoelectronic devices, piezoelectric transducers and generators and also sensors [15–17]. This versatile ma- terial also has the largest family of nanostructures such as nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanobelts, nanorings, nanocages, nanowires, nanofibers and nanorods [18–26]. The latter kind of nanostructures have been synthesized by different methods including physical techniques such as physical vapor phase deposition [27], metal organic chemical vapor de- position [28], thermal evaporation [29], pulsed laser deposition (PLD) [30], hydrothermal method [8,31] etc. The hydrothermal one has been widely used because of it’s a low cost, low growth temperature (< 200 °C), and catalyst free process with possibility of variety used substrates and large scale production. This method is relatively characterized by a simple process consisting in three steps: a seed layer deposition onto the chosen substrate, growth of randomly oriented nanostructures from the seed layer and growth of extended ZnO nanorods from collisions among the ran- domly oriented ZnO crystals [32]. The development of new conjugated ZnO NRs/polymers hybrid heterojunctions, enabled to provide a promising area for integration the broadband absorption and the excellent intrinsic carrier mobility of ZnO NRs with low cost, simply processed conjugated polymers such as polyfluorene (PFO), poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT),and poly(3,4- ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). These π-conjugated polymers characterized also by tunable physical properties show wide opportu- nities of applications in sensors, solar cells, light emitting diodes, and photodetectors [17,33–35].In particular, PPV and its derivatives are still up to now one of the most frequent and valuable photoactive https://doi.org/10.1016/j.materresbull.2018.05.017 Received 11 December 2017; Received in revised form 5 May 2018; Accepted 15 May 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: cherif.Dridi@crmn.rnrt.tn (C. Dridi). Materials Research Bulletin 106 (2018) 28–34 0025-5408/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T