Inorganic-organic p-n heterojunction nanotree arrays for a high-sensitivity diode humidity sensor.

Large-area and ordered arrays (16 cm(2)) of an inorganic-organic p-n heterojunction nanotree (NT) were successfully fabricated. The nanotree arrays consist of ZnO nanorods (NRs) as backbones and CuTCNQ (TCNQ = 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane) NRs as branches. The sizes of CuTCNQ NRs can be tuned by the thickness of the Cu layer deposited on the surface of ZnO NR. The CuTCNQ/ZnO NT arrays displayed excellent diode nature and obvious size-dependent rectification ratios were observed. Moreover, the CuTCNQ/ZnO NT arrays were first applied for the fabrication of a diode-type humidity sensor, which displayed ultrahigh sensitivity and quick response/recovery properties at room temperature. The detection limitation of this new diode-type humidity sensor lowers to 5% relative humidity (RH).