Electronic Responses to Humidity in Monolayer and Multilayer AuNP Stripes Fabricated by Convective Self‐Assembly

Abstract

Nanoparticle devices employing electrical transduction mechanisms have been developed for various fields of application such as strain sensing, chemical detection, photo detectors, solar cells, memory devices, and so on. Since most devices are exposed and operated at ambient conditions, the humidity poses a problem, influencing their electrical properties via the interaction between the water molecules and NP materials. Here, the fabrication of multilayer and monolayer AuNP stripes with different dominating charge transport regimes is reported and their electronic responses to humidity are studied. It is shown that the humiditydependent electronic response is strongly correlated with the morphology and electron transport regimes in the AuNP stripes. Due to the differences in AuNP arrangements and the resulting dominant charge transport regime, the multilayer and mono layer AuNP stripes response differently to the humidity. This work reveals the possible mechanism accounting for their different responses and can help the development of high performance nanoparticle-based devices.

Thin Film Protected Flexible Nanoparticle Strain Sensors: Experiments and Modeling

“…This analysis is followed by a study of the sensor response in a humid environment that is known to influence the long-term behaviour of NP strain sensors [ 38 ]. Ketelsen et al [ 39 ] have also reported on the endurance characteristics of strain gauges on flexible substrates, based on cross-linked gold NPs after performing a large number of strain/relaxation cycles, without, however, modifying the humidity environment during the tests.…”

Arbitrary Gold Nanoparticle Arrays Fabricated through AFM Nanoxerography and Interfacial Seeded Growth

“…Compared with nanoparticles dispersed in solution, ordered nanoparticle arrays on substrate are becoming increasingly attractive because precisely positioning the NPs on the desired area is the foundation of nanodevice fabrication. In addition, ordered nanoparticle arrays not only reveal collective magnetic, optical, and electronic properties of pristine NPs − but also display the huge potential in studying novel properties derived from assembled structure, such as electron coupling , and electron transportation − among NPs. Moreover, the nanoparticle array system makes it easy to observe the chemical reaction in situ, in real time, and with high throughput.…”

Nanoparticle sensor arrays on flexible substrates

“…Strain was applied using a homemade stage capable of applying strains up to 1.17%. Ambient conditions like temperature and relative humidity that NP films are sensitive to [49,50], are eliminated by conducting the experiments under constant relative humidity of 45% and at a temperature of 20° C. Strain sensing experiments were conducted by fixing the sensors on a PCB for more uniform strain application; the application of strain was made by using a micro-vernier and a stepper-motor that was controlled by Arduino Uno and a home-made software. The Resistance of a NP based device is given by the equation (3.6).…”