Preparation of a polymer containing indole groups by RAFT polymerization and one-phase synthesis of AuNPs-polymer nanocomposites

摘要

A one-phase synthesis of AuNPs-polymer nanocomposites using HAuCl_4 as the precursor is reported in this article. A flexible polymer, poly(2-(4-(di(1H-indol-3-yl)methyl)phenoxy) ethyl methacrylate) (PMPEM), containing indole groups on the side chain was utilized as both a reducing reagent and soft template in the system. The PMPEM-Au nanocomposites with three different sizes of AuNPs (25-50, 2, and 5 nm) were obtained just through choosing different solvents such as toluene, tetrahydrofuran (THF), and N,N-dimethylformamide, respectively. Nanocomposites including the size of 25-50 and 2 nm AuNPs showed strong NLO absorption and refraction behaviors. The nonlinear refractive index n2 of PMPEM-Au nanocomposites prepared in toluene and THF were 9.35 × 10~(-11) and 1.85 × 10 -10 m~2/W, third-order susceptibility χ~(3) were 2.55 × 10~(-11) and 4.26 × 10~(-11) esu, respectively.