Preparation of optically anisotropic nanocomposites with oriented gold nanorods embedded in polyvinyl alcohol

We demonstrated a simple but general method to prepare large-area flexible nanocomposites with oriented gold nanorods (GNRs) embedded in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film by directly introducing a GNR colloidal solution into a PVA aqueous solution and using solid-state drawing techniques. The optical property of the nanocomposite exhibits a strong dependence on the angle between the polarization of the incident light and the drawing direction of the nanocomposite film. The color of the composite film can be intelligently tuned and displays red and blue when the light polarization is switched parallel to and perpendicular to the drawing direction, respectively. These composite films have promise for application in a single electrooptical device.