High-performing self-driven ultraviolet photodetector by TiO2/Co3O4 photovoltaics

摘要： Ultraviolet (UV) may provide the essential to maintain the human body and metabolism, however, excessive exposure to UV light is absolutely harmful. We may take advantage of the strong UV energy for energy conversion devices. A stable, simple and scalable heterojunction (TiO2/Co3O4) thin film was developed for UV-absorbing and visible-blind photovoltaic. Effective hole transport layer (HTL, NiO) insertion established photovoltaics, having a power conversion efficiency of 15.8%. The heterojunction exhibits the improved carrier lifetime from 1.94 ms to 9 ms, resulting in the enhancement of both photovoltage and photocurrent from 0.17 V to 0.78 V and from 0.54 mA cm-2 to 13.5 mA cm-2, respectively. The TiO2/Co3O4 device exhibits a photoresponse to a UV light intensity of 60 μW cm-2 in the presence of sunlight and works stable for over a year. The results indicate metal oxide heterojunction (TiO2/Co3O4) photovoltaic device could be useful for monitoring UV radiation exposure and cost-effective self-powered UV optoelectronics. The functional utilization of metal oxide layers would provide strong benefits for photoelectric devices, such as photodetectors and transparent solar cells.