Use of biopolymer templates to fabricate low-dimensional gold particle structures

Abstract

We report the current-voltage characteristics of gold nanoparticle-biopolymer networks at room temperature. The characteristics have features that are indicative of single-electron charging in ordered, one-dimensional chains of nanoparticles. From capacitance estimates and numerical simulations, we argue that the observed electrical behavior is related to the low size dispersion of the nanoparticles and the uniformity of the biopolymer lengths imbedded within the network.