Gold Nanoparticle in Chemoelectronics: Fundamentals, Challenges, and Future Prospects

The basic components of modern electronics are primarily fabricated by using semiconductor material in which the movement of charges can be electrically modulated. For metallic material, however, such modulation is almost impossible because of its field-shielding characteristics, leading to insensitive response toward applied potentials. In this perspective, how to overcome this limitation of bulk metals (here, gold is taken as a particular example) is demonstrated by reducing the size to the nanoscale and functionalizing these nanogolds with charged molecules. The movement of mobile counterions within gold nanoparticle (AuNP) layers can generate charge gradients that feed back and control the motion of electrons which enables to design and fabricate several important components such as the diode, transistor, logic circuits, memristor, and various chemiresistive sensors. The assembly of AuNP electronic components and sensors gives rise to a new class of nanoparticle-based "chemoelectronic" logic circuits that can sense, process, and ultimately report various chemical signals. The gas sensors are believed to be the most appropriate candidates for such integration as no solvent/solution is required and therefore, in the end, the combination of AuNP gas sensors and memristors is outlooked to achieve all-gold-nanoparticle in-sensor computing for the development of future artificial olfactory. Instead of semiconductor materials, charged organic ligands functionalized gold nanoparticles are used to construct several basic electronic components such as diodes, transistors, and memristors. The integration of gas sensing and logic function-"Chemoelectronic"-inspires to envision all-gold-nanoparticle in-sensor computing that may lead to disruptive changes in the artificial olfactory field.image