Fabrication of ultra-pure gold nanoparticles capped with dodecanethiol for Schottky-diode chemical gas sensing devices ; DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2016.07.182 URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925400516310711 Filiació URV: SI ; Ultra-pure monolayer-capped gold nanoparticles for chemical gas sensing devices were prepared by a novel two-step process: a physical vapour deposition technique was first employed to make dispersed ultra-pure size-controlled gold nanoparticles, and this step was followed by a coating process for functionalization of the gold nanoparticles with an organic ligand, specifically dodecanethiol. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy proved that the nano-assemblies had high purity. Chemical sensing devices based on these nano-assemblies showed Schottky-diode behaviour. We believe this is the first observation of Schottky-diodes fabricated from nanomaterials based on metallic nanoparticles. Gas sensing experiments demonstrated that these devices were suitable for detecting volatile organic compounds.