Thin polymer films grafted to the solid surface with in situ synthesized CdS nanocrystals

Abstract

Combining two different novel techniques, namely “grafting from” polymerization and in situ sol–gel synthesis, nanocomposites based on CdS nanocrystals embedded into thin polymer films with diverse structure (either poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) homopolymer or mosaic one composed of polystyrene (PS) and PAA chains) grafted to the solid surface have been obtained. The structure of grafted polymer films as well as the composition of obtained on their basis nanocomposite films were studied and characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, IR-spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic-force microscopy. Two fractions of CdS nanocrystals with the sizes of ~4.5–4.7 and ~5.7–6.0 nm formed in polymer films of both types have been found. It has been revealed that the content ratio of these two fractions mostly depends on the structure of polymer films.