Nanoscale Synthesis and Processing of Multifunctional Polymers and Composites for Photonics

Abstract

Multifunctional composite materials that simultaneously exhibit more than one property are a new generation of materials which hold considerable promise for numerous applications in the field of electronics and photonics. Nanosize control of molecular architecture and morphology provides a powerful approach to control the electronic and optical properties as well as to impart processability of this new generation of materials. In recent years, the design and processing of nanostructured materials has emerged as a frontier area of research. These materials simultaneously exhibit more than one property and, in many cases, produce new effects by the combined action of more than one property. The electronic and photonic properties of these materials are strongly dependent on their bandgaps. This bandgap dependence has been well documented in the case of inorganic semiconductors, where the nanostructure control to produce quantum dots of different sizes has been used to control the electronic, luminescence and nonlinear optical properties.1,2 Quantum confined structures(quantum dots and quantum wells) of inorganic semiconductors such as CdS is an area that has been active for some time.3,4 In contrast, nanoscale polymerization in restricted geometry to produce quantum confined conjugated polymers and composites is practically unexplored. This paper focuses on nanoscale synthesis and processing to control band gap and to prepare novel composite materials for photonics applications.