Toward coupling across inorganic/organic hybrid interfaces: polyaniline-coated gold nanoparticles with 4-aminothiophenol as gold-anchoring moieties

• Published in: Colloid and polymer science
• Main Authors: Yi, Gyusang, Hoffmann, Marisa, Seçkin, Sezer, König, Tobias A. F., Hermes, Ilka, Rossner, Christian, Fery, Andreas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 15.05.2024
• ISSN: 0303-402X; 1435-1536
• DOI: 10.1007/s00396-024-05262-x

The chemical binding between metal nanoparticles and (semi-)conductive polymer layers is essential to control the (opto-)electronic properties of such hybrid materials. Current approaches that achieve a conjugated binding of organic (semi-)conductive ligands to metal nanoparticles demonstrated promising functional properties, but are based on tedious multi-step organic synthesis to incorporate the required binding moieties at the chain ends of targeted macromolecular species. Herein, we explore the pre-functionalization of gold nanoparticles with p -aminothiophenol and subsequent surfactant-assisted formation of a poly(aniline) (PANI) shell as a means to access gold/PANI core–shell-type nanoparticles with enhanced conductive properties. Controlled surface deposition of these hybrid nanoparticles is achieved via template-assisted self-assembly. For these surface-deposited nanoparticles, charge transport properties are characterized at the nanoscale by conductive atomic force microscopy measurements and show a significant conductivity increase of our core–shell particles as compared to reference particles formed by conventional surfactant-assisted PANI-shell formation. Graphical Abstract