Background
The integration of inorganic nanoparticles into polymer based materials allows one to couple properties associated with the inorganic phase to polymers, leading to new functionality of polymer based materials or new processing methods for inorganic materials. The major requirement for nanoparticles to be used as fillers for transparent polymers is a small size in order to avoid Rayleigh scattering of the visible light.
The high specific surface area of small nanoparticles may induce their aggregation. Aggregates also lower the homogeneity of particle distribution. Thus the development of synthetic methods avoiding the formation of aggregates inside the polymer is the key challenge in this project. The research work in this project is focused on applications for luminescent, photorefractive and photochromic materials.