Interest in organic electronics is motivated by the wide variety of functionality available in organic materials, which may enable high-performance devices, coupled with the traditional strength of potentially low fabrication costs. In particular, use of nano-scale materials can lead to devices with superior performance. In order to overcome phase separation issues in polymeric-nanoparticle composite systems for memory device applications, we are investigating the employment of covalent binding between the nanoparticles and functionalized polymers.

In this work, we have synthesized short chain thiol (4-aminothiophenol) capped gold nanoparticles and studied the change in their morphology by changing the process conditions as well as the dispersion medium. Finally, we have stabilized these amine functionalized gold nanoparticles in solution which are prone to agglomerate due to amine-amine hydrogen bonding. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirms the absence of unreacted thiol. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and UV-Vis spectroscopy have been used to study particle morphology.