A new high-soluble precursor for in situ silver nanoparticle generation in polymers

Perfectly transparent silver-polystyrene nanocomposites, characterized by a very strong SPR absorption band centered at 421nm, have been prepared by dissolving silver 1,5-cyclooctadiene hexafluoroacetylacetonate into amorphous polystyrene and thermally annealing this solid solution for 10s at 180°C. The silver atoms generated during the [Ag(hfac)(COD)] thermal decomposition process slowly diffuse into the molten polymeric phase and clusterize, leading to the formation of a contact-free dispersion of silver nanoparticles characterized by a very intensive SPR absorption. Finally, silver 1,5-cyclooctadienehexafluoroacetylacetonate can be conveniently used to dye optical plastics by the strong SPR absorption of nanoscopic silver without transparency loss. In addition, the intensity of coloration can be varied by changing the amount of organic salt dissolved into the polymer.