Carbon Nitride-Supported Nickel Oxide Nanoparticles for Resistive Memory Application

An in situ protocol is described for the preparation of carbon nitride (CN)-supported nickel oxide nanoparticles using a high-temperature route. The microscopic characterization has confirmed the formation of highly dispersed nickel oxide nanoparticles within the range of 5-10 nm. The optical properties of the composite system have confirmed the functionalization of nanoparticles with the CN matrix, while the X-ray diffraction pattern indicates the formation of the monoclinic phase of nickel oxide. The electrical properties of the CN-nickel oxide (CNNO) hybrid system were evaluated in the form of a device that exhibited an electroforming process followed by a bipolar RESET and SET phenomena with an ON-OFF ratio of ∼2 × 104, recorded at 1.5 V. The resistive switching device, also known as memristor, exhibited excellent endurance (104 cycles) and retention (104 s) properties with a consistent ON-OFF ratio between the high resistance state and low resistance state. The electrical rewritable characteristics of the devices exhibited a current difference of 0.6 mA, between two Read voltages, READON-READOFF (R1-R0). In this study, the nonvolatile resistive memory behavior of the CNNO-based material was also displayed pictographically using 3 × 3 bit memory cells.