2D and 3D Metal/Polymer Nanocomposites Prepared by Vapor Phase Deposition. Synthesis and Properties

摘要

Metal nanoparticles dispersed within a polymeric matrix offer interesting electronic, optical and catalytic properties due to their very small dimensions. Until now the preparation of metal/polymer composites has been done mostly by adding a metal salt to a polymer solution and subsequent reduction or by encapsulating of metal particles during a plasma polymerization process. We present a new technique for preparing such metal/polymer composites and metal/polymer layer systems based on vapor phase deposition (VPD) of polymers.The advantages of vapor phase deposition of polymers are the following: The technique does not require the use of solvents, what can be advahtegeous in some applications, where contaminations have to be strictly avoided. This technique was used to prepare such system from pyromellitic dianhydride-oxydianiline (PMDA-ODA) polyimide (PI), Teflon AF (DuPont) and metals (Au, Ag, Cu, Ni). The samples were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), IR- absorption spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Our technique also allows to prepare films with a two and a three dimensional dispersion of metal nanoclusters. which depend strongly on the chemical reactivity of the metal as well as the deposition parameters and the kinetic of annealing of the composites after the preparation.