Evaluation of Nanostructured NiS2 Thin Films from a Single-Source Precursor for Flexible Memristive Devices

• Published in: ACS omega 2023-12, Vol.8 (51), p.48873-48883
• Main Authors: Desai, Trishala R., Goud, R. Sai Prasad, Dongale, Tukaram D., Gurnani, Chitra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2470-1343; 2470-1343
• DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c06331

Herein, we report the first demonstration of a single-step, in situ growth of NiS2 nanostructures from a single-source precursor onto a flexible substrate as a versatile platform for an effective nonvolatile memristor. The low temperature, solution-processed deposition of NiS2 thin films exhibits a wide band gap range, spherical-flower-like morphology with high surface area and porosity, and negligible surface roughness. Moreover, the fabricated Au/NiS2/ITO/PET memristor device reveals reproducible bipolar resistive switching (RS) at low operational voltages under both flat and bending conditions. The flexible device shows stable RS behavior for multiple cycles with a good memory window (∼102) and data retention of up to 104 s. The switching of a device between a high-resistance state and a low-resistance state is attributed to the filamentary conduction based on sulfur ion migration and sulfur vacancies and plays a key role in the outstanding memristive performance of the device. Consequently, this work provides a simple, scalable, solution-processed route to fabricate a flexible device with potential applications in next-generation neuromorphic computing and wearable electronics.