This study describes a novel fabrication technique to grow gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) directly on seeded ZnO sacrificial template/polymethylsilsesquioxanes (PMSSQ)/Si using low-temperature hydrothermal reaction at 80°C for 4 h. The effect of non-annealing and various annealing temperatures, 200°C, 300°C, and 400°C, of the ZnO-seeded template on AuNP size and distribution was systematically studied. Another PMMSQ layer was spin-coated on AuNPs to study the memory properties of organic insulator-embedded AuNPs. Well-distributed and controllable AuNP sizes were successfully grown directly on the substrate, as observed using a field emission scanning electron microscope followed by an elemental analysis study. A phase analysis study confirmed that the ZnO sacrificial template was eliminated during the hydrothermal reaction. The AuNP formation mechanism using this hydrothermal reaction approach was proposed. In this study, the AuNPs were charge-trapped sites and showed excellent memory effects when embedded in PMSSQ. Optimum memory properties of PMMSQ-embedded AuNPs were obtained for AuNPs synthesized on a seeded ZnO template annealed at 300°C, with 54 electrons trapped per AuNP and excellent current–voltage response between an erased and programmed device.

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This paper describes a novel fabrication technique to grow gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) by using the sacrificial templated growth hydrothermal reaction approach. The effect of zinc nitrate Zn (NO3)2 concentration in the hydrothermal reaction on the formation of AuNPs was studied by varying the concentration from 0.01 M, 0.05 M, 0.1 M and 0.2 M. The increase of Zn (NO3)2 concentration lead to formation of smaller size and lower area density of AuNPs. XRD analysis proved the formation of AuNPs by using this approach. From scanning electron microscope images, the sample with 0.1M of Zn (NO3)2 concentration showed better AuNPs distribution. In order to investigate the memory properties of AuNPs embedded in organic insulator, polymethylsilsesquioxane (PMSSQ) was spin coated as insulator layer between the AuNPs. I-V and C-V characteristics showed hysteresis properties that indicated charge storage capability of AuNPs embedded organic insulator. AuNPs grown on 300°C annealed ZnO template in 0.1M of Zn (NO3)2 hydrothermal bath produced the best memory properties whereby 54 of electron charges has been stored per AuNPs in C-V measurement.