Self‐Powered Low‐Cost UVC Sensor Based on Organic‐Inorganic Heterojunction for Partial Discharge Detection

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Germany), 2021-07, Vol.17 (28), p.e2100695-n/a
• Main Authors: Park, Taehyun, Hur, Jaehyun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alarm systems; Blindness; Damage prevention; Discharge; Heterojunctions; Mass production; Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology; Optoelectronics; partial discharge; Photodiodes; Polymers; Power consumption; Power management; Response time; self‐powered sensors; solution process; Spectral sensitivity; UVC sensors; Visual signals; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202100695

Power outages caused by the aging of high‐voltage power facilities can cause significant economic and social damage. To prevent such problems, it is necessary to implement a widespread and sustainable monitoring system. Partial discharge (PD) is a preliminary symptom of power equipment aging accompanying the light, typically in the UV range. UVC (200–280 nm) is more useful than UVA and UVB because of low interference from the environment owing to its solar‐blindness by the stratosphere. Therefore, to realize a wide‐range and durable diagnosis system, it is necessary to develop sensors that can selectively detect UVC, while enabling mass production at low‐cost and low power consumption. Here, a solution‐processable photodiode sensor that is inexpensive, mass‐producible, and self‐powered with selective UVC detection is developed. The optoelectronic characteristics of photodiode consisting of organic p‐polymer and inorganic n‐ZnO nanoparticles are systematically studied to determine the optimum p‐type polymer and its thickness. The device shows high‐performance: fast response time (rise/fall time: 36.6/37.0 ms) and high spectral response in the UVC region (maximum responsivity of 20 mA W−1) under self‐powered operation. Furthermore, the practical application of the device to detect PD signals with a visual alarm system under UVC release conditions is demonstrated. A solution‐processable photodiode sensor consisting of organic p‐type F8BT and inorganic n‐type ZnO nanoparticles was fabricated for the selective UVC detection. Under the optimized conditions (type of p‐polymer and thickness of active layers), the sensor showed high‐performance in terms of spectral responsivity and response time. For practical applications, a partial discharge detection was demonstrated with this sensor.