CC BY
10LP-I-9
Photoinduced formation of inorganic nanoparticles in polymer matrix: mechanisms and laser structuring
N. Bityurin1, A.A. Smirnov1, A. Afanasiev1, A. Pikulin1
institute of Applied Physics RAS, Nonlinear dynamics and optics, Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Federation
Destruction of specially introduced precursor molecules may result in the formation of inorganic nanoparticles in a polymer matrix. The destruction can be caused by heating and/or photochemical effect of UV/laser radiation.
Among such photoinduced nanocomposites the most popular are plasmonic ones with metallic nanoparticles. Recently, the composites with semiconductor nanoparticles have attracted attention of the investigators because of their luminescent properties.
We selected an organic-inorganic compound that can serve as a soluble precursor of CdS nanoparticles in a PMMA matrix [1]. UV LED operating at a wavelength of 365 nm appeared to be very useful to study the kinetics of UV mediated CdS nanoparticle growth in these materials. In situ monitoring of the optical absorption evolution accompanying the nanoparticle growth by means of UV laser or white LED allows acquiring experimental data [1,2] that are sufficient to construct a theoretical model [3] and discuss the interrelation between homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation processes.
Laser irradiation is a promising tool for originating structures within photoinduced nanocomposites. Experimental examples of the laser-induced nanostructuring of these materials are demonstrated. We discuss generation of nanoparticles in photoinduced nanocomposites by the focused laser light from a point of view of possible localization and shell-structure printing phenomena.
We also consider the possibility of obtaining core-shell nanoparticles at laser irradiation of photoinduced nanocomposites with precursors of two different kinds and the combined effect of laser and UV LED irradiation of composites with single and two precursors. The authors thank the Russian Foundation for Basic Researches (Grant No. 19-02-00694 a) for financial support.
References
[1] A.A. Smirnov, A. Afanasiev, S. Gusev, D. Tatarskiy, N. Ermolaev and N. Bityurin, Exposure dependence of the UV initiated optical absorption increase in polymer films with a soluble CdS precursor and its relation to the photoinduced nanoparticle growth, Opt. Mater. Express, 8(6), 16031612 (2018).
[2] A. A. Smirnov, A. Kudryashov, N. Agareva, A. Afanasiev, S. Gusev, D. Tatarskiy, N. Bityurin, In-situ monitoring of the evolution of the optical properties for UV LED irradiated polymer-based photoinduced nanocomposites, Applied Surface Science 486 (2019) 376-382.
[3] N. Bityurin, A.A. Smirnov, Model for UV induced growth of semiconductor nanoparticles in polymer films, Applied Surface Science 487 (2019) 678-691.
