Adsorption-driven tuning of the electrical resistance of nanoporous gold

The electrical resistance of nanoporous gold prepared by dealloying is tuned by charging the surfaces of the porous structure in an electrolyte. Reversible variations in the resistance up to approximately 4% and 43% occur due to charging in the regimes of double layer charging and specific adsorption, respectively. Charging-induced variations in the electron density or of the volume cannot account for the resistance variation, indicating that this variation is primarily caused by charge-induced modifications of the charge carrier scattering at the solid-electrolyte interface. The relative resistance variation in nanoporous Au with surface charging is found to be much higher than reported for porous nanocrystalline Pt. This is due to the lesser resistance contribution from internal grain boundaries. The resistance variation in nanoporous Au is also higher than that found in thin films owing to the stronger surface scattering in the ligament structure compared to plan surfaces. We argue that the strong resistance variation in up to 43% in the regime of specific adsorption is due to the reversible formation of a chemisorbed surface layer acting as scattering centers for the charge carriers.