Fabrication of monodisperse luminescent nanoparticles with core/shell poly(styrene/thiophene) structure |
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Authors: | Yeon Jae Jung Sun Jong Lee Sung Wook Choi Jung Hyun Kim |
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Institution: | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, 134 Shinchon‐Dong, Sudaemoon‐Ku, Seoul 120‐749, Republic of Korea |
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Abstract: | Luminescent poly(styrene/thiophene) (PSt/PT) core/shell nanoparticles were prepared by oxidative polymerization in the presence of PSt seed particles. PSt seed particles with uniform size distribution were prepared with an anionic surfactant by an emulsion polymerization process, and were used as a template to prepare monodispersive PT‐coated nanoparticles. A luminescent Polythiophene (PT) layer was formed on the surface of PSt nanoparticles by oxidation polymerization with iron chloride (FeCl3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The mechanism of core/shell formation was found to be the interface‐dominant polymerization induced by the electrostatic attraction between the sulfonate group of anionic surfactant and Fe3+ ions after the diffusion of thiophene monomer to the PSt nanoparticles. Field‐emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) proved the core/shell structure, which provided key evidence that PT was incorporated onto the surface of PSt nanoparticles. In addition, the effect of the PT shell thickness on photoluminescent (PL) intensity was investigated by changing the shell thickness of PSt/PT nanoparticles. We observed that the PL intensity increased up to about 30 nm of PT shell thickness, and then decreased due to self‐absorption. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 5968–5975, 2008 |
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Keywords: | conjugated polymers core/shell structure emulsion polymerization luminescence photoluminescence polystyrene polythiophene shell thickness |
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