Background charge fluctuations and the transport properties of biopolymer-gold nanoparticle complexes

The room temperature electrical characteristics of biopolymer-gold nanoparticle complexes show threshold behavior, periodic conductance features, and current–voltage scaling that together indicate the nonlinear transport is associated with single electron charging. Repeated measurements over a period of up to 80 h showed the characteristics change with time. The current–voltage scaling behavior is found to be time independent, while the position of the conductance features shifted randomly over periods of many hours. We show that the time dependence is consistent with a fluctuating background charge distribution and can be understood within the framework of the orthodox model of single electron transport that is modified to account for the relatively large self-capacitance of the nanoparticles.