The presence of voltage controlled negative differential resistance was observed in conduction characteristics recorded at room temperature for 300 nm thick spin-coated films of graphene oxide (GO) sandwiched between indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates and top electrodes of sputtered gold (Au) film. The GO crystallites were found from the X-ray diffraction studies to have an average size in the order of 7.24 nm and to be preferentially oriented along (001) plane. Raman spectroscopy suggested that the material consisted of multilayer stacks with the defects being located at the edges with an average distance of 1.04 nm apart. UV visible spectroscopy studies suggested that the band gap of the material was 4.3 eV, corresponding to direct transitions. The two-terminal ITO/GO/Au devices exhibited memristor characteristics with scan-rate dependent hysteresis, threshold voltage and On/Off ratios. A value of >104 was obtained for On/Off ratio at a scan rate of 400 mVs-1 and 4.2 V. © 2015. The Institution of Engineering and Technology.