A thin-film transistor (TFT) having an organic–inorganic hybrid thin film combines the advantage of TFT sensors and the enhanced sensing performance of hybrid materials. In this work, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)-zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles' hybrid thin film was fabricated by a spraying process as the active layer of TFT for the employment of a room temperature operated formaldehyde (HCHO) gas sensor. The effects of ZnO nanoparticles on morphological and compositional features, electronic and HCHO-sensing properties of P3HT-ZnO thin film were systematically investigated. The results showed that P3HT-ZnO hybrid thin film sensor exhibited considerable improvement of sensing response (more than two times) and reversibility compared to the pristine P3HT film sensor. An accumulation p-n heterojunction mechanism model was developed to understand the mechanism of enhanced sensing properties by incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles. X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterizations were used to investigate the stability of the sensor in-depth, which reveals the performance deterioration was due to the changes of element composition and the chemical state of hybrid thin film surface induced by light and oxygen. Our study demonstrated that P3HT-ZnO hybrid thin film TFT sensor is beneficial in the advancement of novel room temperature HCHO sensing technology.
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