Due to the physical properties that arise at small dimension, nanoparticles are of significant interest as tools in the fabrication of new materials, such as solar cells, memory storage devices, chemical sensors, and nanomedicine. For all of these applications, charge mobility across the surface of gold nanoparticles is critical, but has proven to be poor. We hypothesize that poor interfacial electrical conductivity is the result of the formation of �trap states� at the surface of these particles, and that the ferromagnetism that emerges for nanoscale gold particles functions as a marker for these trap states. We then demonstrate the ability to control the degree of the magnetization (and hence the strength of the trap state) via tuning identity and concentration of the surface ligands .

Controlling the surface electronic states of gold nanoparticles via surface chemistry

248th National Meeting (2014)

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