A novel synthetic route to metal–polymer nanocomposites by in situ suspension and bulk polymerizations

A novel strategy to synthesize hybrid metal–polymer nanocomposites has been achieved based on in situ free radical suspension and bulk polymerization techniques. An organometallic precursor complex is dissolved in a liquid monomer phase prior to polymerization, where upon the precursor molecules are immobilized inside the polymer matrix during its formation. In a separate step, metal nanoparticles are then formed by H₂-assisted reduction of the precursor in the polymer product in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂). The synthesized nanocomposites were characterized by GPC, TGA, SEM and TEM. It is shown that the metal nanoparticles are uniformly distributed inside the polymer matrix and the inclusion of the metal precursor has no significant influence on the polymerization process. The current work represents a simple and universal way to prepare a variety of metal–polymer nanocomposite functional materials.