Preparation of a polymer containing indole groups by RAFT polymerization and one‐phase synthesis of AuNPs‐polymer nanocomposites

A one‐phase synthesis of AuNPs‐polymer nanocomposites using HAuCl 4 as the precursor is reported in this article. A flexible polymer, poly(2‐(4‐(di(1 H ‐indol‐3‐yl)methyl)phenoxy) ethyl methacrylate) (PMPEM), containing indole groups on the side chain was utilized as both a reducing reagent and soft template in the system. The PMPEM‐Au nanocomposites with three different sizes of AuNPs (25–50, 2, and 5 nm) were obtained just through choosing different solvents such as toluene, tetrahydrofuran (THF), and N , N ‐dimethylformamide, respectively. Nanocomposites including the size of 25–50 and 2 nm AuNPs showed strong NLO absorption and refraction behaviors. The nonlinear refractive index n 2 of PMPEM‐Au nanocomposites prepared in toluene and THF were 9.35 × 10 −11 and 1.85 × 10 −10 m 2 /W, third‐order susceptibility χ (3) were 2.55 × 10 −11 and 4.26 × 10 −11 esu, respectively. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013