Large area multiwall carbon nanotubes-tungsten oxide (MWCNTs-WO₃) composite buckypaper based flexible UV photodetector

A flexible, low-cost, UV photodetector has been fabricated using multiwall carbon nanotubes-tungsten oxide ( \(\hbox {MWCNTs-WO}_{3}\) ${\text{MWCNTs-WO}}_3$ ) composite buckypaper. A low-cost facile hydrothermal process has been used to synthesize the photo active material. The synthesized composite buckypaper has been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The synergic effect of wideband gap \(\hbox {WO}_{3}\) ${\text{WO}}_3$ and high conductivity of MWCNTs, result in high responsivity UV photodetector. The fabricated device has been characterized by current–voltage measurement with and without UV illumination. The linear current–voltage characteristics were observed under dark and 365 nm UV light illumination and have obvious differences. The photoresponsivity R at 0.2 V bias is \(\sim 60\) $\sim 60$ A/W under \(650\,\mu \mathrm{W/cm}^{2}\) $650\mu {\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{cm}}^2$ of UV light. The device exhibits the highest detectivity of \(\sim 7.3\) $\sim 7.3$ \(\times\) $\times$ \(10^{11}\) ${10}^{11}$ Jones and an EQE (%) of 20,384 under UV illumination at a low bias voltage. The synthesized buckypaper composite has the potential to be used in ultraviolet photodetector applications.