A new strategy towards electroactive polymer-inorganic nanostructure composites. Silver nanoparticles inside polypyrrole matrix with pendant titanocene dichloride complexes

Proposed synthesis route is oriented towards hybrid materials, in which inorganic nanoparticles are distributed mostly inside the film of a polymer with conjugated chain far away from its external surface in contact with solution. Its principal idea is to perform the electrodeposition of these particles from a solute precursor in conditions where the electronic transport across the film is so slow that it represents a rate-determining step of the process and the reduction of precursor molecules takes place deeply inside the pores of the film. Such situation is realized in conjugated polymers functionalized by pendant redox-active centers, if the deposition process occurs in the potential range of their redox activity. Important advantage of this procedure consists in the absence of any additional surface-active or stabilizing agent which has to be used if the nanoparticles are incorporated into the growing film from their solubilized colloidal solution. Sizes of these particles may be varied in a controllable manner by the duration of the process and other parameters of the system.