ZnO@ZIF-8 heteronanostructures for advanced neuromorphic synaptic devices

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising materials for memristive synaptic devices due to their adaptable electrical properties and inherent porosity, which facilitate efficient ion transport and functional molecule storage. Here, we report MOFs from metabolites using ZnO as a self-sacrificial metallic source to grow zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), creating ZnO@ZIF-8 heteronanostructures for neuromorphic applications. These resultant synaptic devices exhibit superior electrical performance compared to ZnO single-layer devices, as demonstrated by current-voltage curve analysis and long-term potentiation/long-term depression (LTP/LTD) measurements. The bilayer devices achieve significantly improved endurance, reaching 200 cycles, and have a lower average set/reset voltage of 1.48/−0.59 V, indicating reduced power consumption. They also show an on/off ratio (HRS/LRS) of 44.54, with normalized SDs of 0.69, and nonlinearity in LTP and LTD of 0.58% and 0.30%, respectively, highlighting the ZIF-8 layer's crucial role in enhancing neuromorphic system performance and reliability.