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Melt Elongation of Polymer Nanocomposites: A Method for the Controlled Production of Dichroic Films
Author(s) -
Schmid Daniel,
Handge Ulrich A.,
Gann John P.,
Yan Mingdi,
Caseri Walter
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.200800014
Subject(s) - dichroic glass , materials science , elongation , nanocomposite , polymer , polymer nanocomposite , composite material , dichroic filter , dichroism , coating , rheometer , nanotechnology , optics , rheology , ultimate tensile strength , optoelectronics , wavelength , physics
A processing method based on stretching of molten polymer nanocomposites was applied to prepare dichroic films. First, dodecanethiol‐capped gold particles were embedded in low density polyethylene. The resulting isotropic films were stretched in the melt under uniaxial loading using an elongational rheometer. The melt elongation technique resulted in reproducible characteristics of the optical properties and can be directly transferred to an industrial scale. The organic coating of the metal particles plays an important role in the generation of the dichroism. A reactive surface (adsorbed perfluorophenyl azide) led to strongly agglomerated particles which obviously did not lead to dichroic films.