Oriented nanocomposites of ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene and gold

Polymer nanocomposites were prepared by mixing ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene and Sold colloids coated with a self-assembled monolayer of dode-canethiol. Subsequently, these materials were oriented by solid state drawing which induced the formation of uniaxially oriented arrays of gold particles. As a result of the orientation of the gold arrays, the VIS-NIR spectra of the drawn composites strongly depended in polarized light on the angle between polarization direction and the orientation axis of the particle arrays, with shifts in the absorption maxima up to ca. 100 nm. It is assumed that these color shifts originated from the small dimensions of the dispersed metal phase in combination with their uniaxial orientation.