Hybrid nanoparticles consisting of II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals and organic conjugated polymers are increasingly relevant and have potential application in light emitting devices, photovoltaics and bioimaging applications.<br/>For the functionalization of particles with polymer grafting-from approaches are the method of choice and allow for a covalent attachment of polymer with defined chain length and high grafting densities. However, conjugated polymers are normally obtained by step-growth reactions which are incompatible with grafting-from approaches.<br/>Here, we report on a grafting-from approach by controlled Suzuki-Miyaura coupling polymerization which yields CdSe/CdS nanocrystals with semiconducting polymers grown from their surface.<br/>High quality CdSe/CdS core-shell nanocrystals are synthesized and functionalized with halo-aryl-phosphonic acids. They serve as organic precursors for three-coordinated surface bound Pd(II) Suzuki-Miyaura initiator complexes which are obtained by the reaction with a Pd(0) source. These immobilized initiators can then be used to grow conjugated polymers from the nanocrystal’s surface. A key issue in terms of the scope of the method and the bandgaps accessible is a sufficiently high reactivity of the surface bound initiators, matched to the given monomer of interest. Successful polymerization from the nanocrystal’s surface is concluded from MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry of stripped-off polymer.<br/>The synthesized particles feature a bright photoluminescence and preliminary photoluminescence experiments indicate an effective energy transfer from the polymer to the nanocrystal.

CdSe/CdS-Conjugated polymer core-shell hybrid nanoparticles by a grafting-from approach

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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