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, READ_ON–READ_OFF (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.