Synthesis and characterization of novel Al(III)-metallopolymer and its application as a non-volatile resistive memristive material

In this study, Al(III)-metallopolymer is synthesized with our previously reported ligand to understand the difference in the interaction of the reported ligand with transition metal ions (Fe(II) and Cr(II) ions) and smaller cationic radius main group metal ion. Al(III)-metallopolymer is thoroughly characterized by different analytical techniques to understand the structure–property relationship. Surface morphological analyses reveal the formation of long nano-fiber strands on the respective substrates. This polymer has shown reversible redox behavior, which is ligand centric as no d-orbitals are available on the central metal ion for the electron push-pull mechanism. Al(III)-metallopolymer is fluorescent active, and it is shown a reversible change in absorption spectrum on the application of the appropriate potential. This ligand-based redox-switching also generates a bistable state when a metal–insulator(thin film of polymer)-metal sandwich device is probed in between ±1 V, and it is stable in the ambient condition to sustain several flip-flop cycles without any degradation for 103 s as observed from the experimental data. This work enlightens a new metallopolymer with a low value of SET-RESET voltage and a long retention time for the future memristive device, which can operate at very low voltage compared to conventional Si-based memory chips.