Eur. Phys. J. B 72, 113-118 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00307-0

Influence of fillers concentration on electrical properties of polystyrene matrix doped by gold nanoparticles and 8HQ

¹ STMicroelectronics, Post Silicon Technology Group, Portici, Italy
² Technological District, IMAST Scarl, Portici, Italy
³ CNR-INFM – Coherentia and Department of Physics, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
⁴ Institute of Composite and Biomedical Materials, CNR, Naples, Italy
⁵ Department of Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a rossana.scaldaferri@st.com

Received: 6 May 2009
Revised: 24 July 2009
Published online: 26 September 2009

Abstract

The analysis of the electrical properties of polystyrene films containing gold nanoparticles capped with 1-dodecanethiol and 8-hydroxyquinoline molecules is reported. The conductivity of the nanocomposite as a function of the doping level has been investigated both in planar and stacked configurations. While the former configuration evidenced low field tunneling between nanoparticles in the polymer matrix, stacked devices allowed us to investigate the main phenomena ruling the transport properties when switching effects are present close to critical electric fields. In particular, through the analysis of current-voltage characteristics we studied the charge transport at different fillers concentrations and sketched a physical picture of conductivity in such nanocomposite systems.