Realizing Nonvolatile Photomemories with Multilevel Memory Behaviors Using Water-Processable Polymer Dots-Based Hybrid Floating Gates

Photomemory with fast data transmission speed and high-energy saving capability has appeared as a novel storage device in the forthcoming era of information explosion. Recently, photoactive polymer dots (Pdots) have aroused significant research interests as biosimulated photocatalysts in energy conservation and renewable fuel industry due to their compelling properties like facile structural modification, good water dispersivity, tailorable optoelectronic properties, and high suitability for visible-light-driven processes. Given these advantages, Pdots are innovatively proposed for photomemory applications, for the first time. Herein, water-processed Pdot-based floating gates are demonstrated to realize light-erasable photomemory behaviors of the derived memory devices. Discrete conjugated Pdots embedded in an insulated polymer matrix are shown to serve as efficient charge-trapping sites to enable charge trapping/releasing through an electric field and light illumination. The structure-performance relationship of Pdot-based photomemory devices is investigated by changing the core conjugated structures of Pdots. It reveals that photomemory characteristics can be simply tuned by varying the acceptor moiety of the conjugated polymers, and forming cycloplatinated Pdots by inserting Pt complexes into the polymer backbones further converts the storage type of the derived devices from volatile memory to nonvolatile flash memory. Finally, the PFTBTAPtPy-based photomemory delivers a multilevel photorecording behavior, excellent data retention over 104 s, and reliable durability. It is worth noting that Pdot-based floating gates are fully manufactured in water without using any organic solvents, which takes a great step to the sustainable development of photomemory.