Prussian Blue and Prussian Blue Analogs as Emerging Memristive Materials

TL;DR

This paper explores Prussian Blue analogues as promising memristive materials, demonstrating their resistive switching, ionic conduction, and quantum transport properties for advanced memory and energy storage applications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of Prussian Blue thin films showing resistive switching, ionic migration, and conductance quantization, highlighting their potential for next-generation electronic devices.

Findings

Robust resistive switching with ON/OFF ratios up to three orders of magnitude.

Observation of conductance quantization at integer and half-integer multiples of G0.

Demonstration of filamentary conduction driven by potassium-ion migration.

Abstract

Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) and related organic materials are promising platforms for next-generation memory and energy-storage technologies due to their redox activity, ionic mobility, and compatibility with low-cost and scalable fabrication. Electrodeposited Prussian Blue (PB) and Prussian White (PW) thin films show robust resistive switching with ON/OFF ratios from one to three orders of magnitude in both bipolar and unipolar modes. Structural and spectroscopic analyses reveal homogeneous films with well-defined grain boundaries and ionic pathways that enable filamentary conduction. Current-voltage measurements, impedance spectroscopy, and quantum transport modeling indicate switching mechanisms governed by ohmic or space-charge-limited conduction, driven by potassium-ion migration and reversible redox processes. PB-based devices also exhibit conductance quantization with discrete steps at integer and half-integer multiples of G0, consistent with ballistic electron transport through atomic-scale channels. Complementary studies on perylene-based liquid crystals and FeHCF on graphene oxide highlight the versatility of PBAs for memory and supercapacitor applications. Together, these results demonstrate the multifunctionality and scalability of PBAs for future ReRAM, neuromorphic computing, multilevel memory, cryptographic hardware, and high-performance energy-storage devices.