Catalytic and optical behavior of polymer embedded metal nanoparticles

Very small metal aggregates (nanoaggregates) embedded in an inert polymer matrix, which simply stabilizes the nanodispersion, show unique catalytic and optical behaviour. Indeed Ru-nanoparticles in vinyl-aromatic polymers or polyphosphazenes display an enhanced reactivity for hydrogenation of different groups, such as aromatic rings, keto and nitro groups, oximes and nitriles which are converted into the corresponding saturated derivatives under mild conditions. The optical properties of terthiophenethiol-coated gold nanoparticles in UHMWPE (concentration lower than 4 wt.%) are characterized by poor dichroism due to their centrosymmetric structure. High dichroism (R = 30 at 400 nm, DR = 30) is on the contrary recorded for the terthiophene band showing the chromophores to be sensitive to mechanical orientation also when complexed with gold. On the other hand, nanocomposites based on polymers containing vinyl alcohol units and dispersed gold nanoparticles with average diameter ranging from 3 to 20 nm have been efficiently prepared by an UV photo-reduction process. Uniaxial drawing of the irradiated Au/polymer nanocomposites favours the anisotropic distribution of packed assemblies of gold particles, providing oriented films with polarization-dependent tunable optical properties.