Electrochemical preparation of polypyrrole-Ag nanoparticles composite film and its resistive switching properties

Abstract

The resistive random-access memory (ReRAM) is an emerging field with great advancements in device performance, fabrication, and application. But its prospects are still challenged by the poor thermal stability and low ON/OFF ratio. When the polymer materials are combined with metal nanoparticles (NPs), the resistive switching properties could be effectively improved. A modified electrochemical strategy has been developed to synthesize dense polypyrrole-Ag nanoparticles (PPy-Ag NPs) composite films as the active layer in the memory device. Ag NPs had been uniformly doped into the PPy, which had been proved by FTIR, Raman and XPS analysis. With the introduction of Ag NPs, the as-fabricated Pt/PPy-Ag NPs/Pt device exhibits a bipolar switching phenomenon. Moreover, the memory properties are related to the doping concentration of Ag NPs. When the Ag content in the PPy-Ag NPs composite film increases to 0.14 wt%, the Pt/PPy-Ag NPs/Pt ReRAM device exhibits excellent non-volatile bistable resistive switching performance with a long retention time over 104 s, good endurance cycles and favorable thermal stability.