New two-dimensional polymer-metal composites based on highly ordered ensembles of nanoparticles. Design and optical properties

Abstract

A new method has been proposed for designing composite materials that represent highly ordered two-dimensional metal nanoparticles ensembles having variable geometric parameters and being embedded into the surface layer of a polymer matrix to a predetermined depth. The method is based on diblock copolymer micellar lithography and the effect of decreased glass-transition temperature of a polymer surface as compared with its bulk value. The possibility of independent variations in the depth of embedding of metal nanoparticles (by system annealing) and their size (by seeded growth) has resulted in the systematic study of the influence of the temperature and time of annealing on the kinetics of nanoparticle embedding into a polymer. For the first time, the plasmon-resonant properties of hexagonally ordered ensembles of gold nanoparticles located at a polymer-air interface have been experimentally studied. It has been established that the embedding of an ensemble of nanoparticles into a polymer is accompanied by a bathochromic shift of the maximum of its localized surface plasmon resonance due to a growth in the effective dielectric permittivity of the environment of the nanoparticles. An empirical equation has been proposed, which satisfactorily describes these experimental data.