Tunable electrical properties of carbon dot doped photo-responsive azobenzene–clay nanocomposites

Abstract

The development of photo-responsive nanocomposite materials is important in the fabrication of optoelectronic devices. In this work, we fabricated a carbon dot doped azobenzene–clay nanocomposite which possesses different ac conductivity with and without UV treatment. At first, azobenzene nanoclusters were synthesised and then successfully used to make an azobenzene–clay nanocomposite. It was observed that there is a small change in the ac conductivity of the azobenzene–clay nanocomposite with and without UV treatment. However, this change in ac photoconductivity can be enhanced in the azobenzene–clay nanocomposite by doping with electron-rich cysteine and methionine carbon dots. Hence, ac conductivity properties of the carbon-doped azobenzene–clay nanocomposite can be tuned using UV light. Impedance measurements were determined using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy. Mechanistic insight into the phenomenon is also discussed in the paper. Thus fabrication of tunable carbon dot doped photo-responsive azobenzene–clay nanocomposites will lead to the use of carbon dot doped azobenzene–clay nanocomposites in photo-switchable optoelectronic devices.