Translation of a chemical reaction to electrical signal generation: An organic-inorganic complexation strategy

A complexation strategy involving the addition of cysteine to a Cu(i)-polyaniline composite system, where cysteine performed the role of a ligand, has been reported. The in situ electrical measurement of the complexation process exhibits a resistive switching behaviour with an ON-to-OFF ratio of 5 × 102 and follows the Ohmic and Poole-Frenkel emission mechanism for the low-conductance state and Ohmic behaviour for the high-conductance state, with a volatile resistive switching property. Further, the polyaniline-stabilized copper sulfide nanoparticle-based device (where cysteine acts as the sulphur source) exhibits a bipolar resistive switching behaviour, where the low conductance state follows the Poole-Frenkel emission mechanism and the Ohmic mechanism was observed for the high conductance state. The device exhibits excellent endurance and retention capacity for 2 × 103 cycles with an average ON-to-OFF ratio of 104, with a non-volatile resistive switching behaviour.