Recent literature describing nanocomposites of metal nanoparticles and conjugated polymers and oligomers are reviewed. Preparation of these nanocomposites by chemical and electrochemical methods are described, and the electronic and optical properties of these materials are discussed. Some initial applications that have been investigated for such nanocomposites are covered.

The electrodeposition and characterization of conducting thin films of gold nanoparticles bridged with oligothiophene linkers are reported. Gold nanoparticles capped with the conjugated phosphines 5-diphenylphosphino-2,2′:5′,2′′-terthiophene (d core ) 1.7 ( 0.3 nm) and 5-diphenylphosphino-3′,4′-ethylenedioxy-2,2′:5′,2′′-terthiophene (d core ) 1.8 ( 0.4 nm) have been prepared. Electrochemical oxidation of these particles results in the deposition of thin films consisting of intact nanoparticles linked by oligothiophene moieties, in which the π-π* absorption of both the conjugated linker and the plasmon band are red-shifted relative to individual nanoparticles. Conductivities of both the unlinked and linked particles are measured and the latter are shown to have substantially higher conductivities than unlinked particles or gold nanoparticles linked by saturated alkyl chain linkers.

The first coordination polymer incorporating Hg(CN) 2 units as building blocks is reported. The reaction of the labile transition-metal halide CuCl 2 , the soft Lewis acidic Hg(CN) 2 , and N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (tmeda) formed large single crystals of [(tmeda)Cu-[Hg(CN) 2 ] 2 ][HgCl 4 ] (1). The migration of two labile chloride ligands from harder Cu(II) to softer Hg(II) drives the formation of 1, which self-assembles in high yield from several combinations of reagents. Complex 1 crystallizes in the tetragonal, noncentric P4 h2 1 m space group, Z ) 2, with a ) b ) 10.9576(12) Å and c ) 9.8516(13) Å. The structure is composed of a 2-D cationic layer of [(tmeda)Cu[Hg(CN) 2 ] 2 ] 2+ units in which the six-coordinate Cu(II) centers are bridged by four Hg(CN) 2 groups and capped by a tmeda ligand. This array is interspersed with a layer of [HgCl 4 ] 2anions, which form bridging Hg-Cl bonds with the Hg(CN) 2 units. At 300 K, a-or b-oriented single-crystal plates of 1 are strongly birefringent with a birefringence value of ∆n ) 6.38 × 10 -2 , as measured at λ ) 546.1 nm. The strongly anisotropic crystal structure, including the highly polarizable Hg(II) ions, is responsible for this significant optical birefringence. Upon cooling, the birefringence of 1 decreases slightly to ∆n ) 6.12 × 10 -2 at 90 K.

For Abstract see ChemInform Abstract in Full Text.

No abstract