Preparation and resistivity study of silver nanocomposite films using spin‐assisted layer‐by‐layer assembly

Nanocomposite films [Ag/(PAH‐PSS)_nPAH]_m were fabricated on a silicon substrate using a time‐ and cost‐efficient spin‐assisted layer‐by‐layer (SA‐LbL) self‐assembly technique. A virtually monolayer‐like layer of self‐assembled silver nanoparticles was formed when deposition time increased to 30 min. It was found that polymer multilayers could effectively decrease the resistivity of silver nanoparticle monolayer, which was far higher than that of bulk silver metal; however, the resistivity of Ag/(PAH‐PSS)_nPAH multilayer films increased along with the increasing of the number of polymer bilayers. XPS investigations showed that silver nanoparticles were partially oxidized, which might be the major cause of the high resistivity of silver nanoparticle monolayer. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.