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Updated: Feb 25, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advances in Nanoscale Infrared Spectroscopy to Explore Multiphase Polymeric Systems
Published on: June 23, 2023
Nanocomposites Polarizing by Absorption: Dichroism in the Near-Infrared Region (NIR)
Lorenz Bonderer1, Dirk I Uhlenhaut2, Paul Smith3
1Department of Materials, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Wolfgang‑Pauli‑Strasse 10, Zürich CH-8093, Switzerland. lorenz@bonderer.ch.
Abstract:
We describe the preparation of nanocomposites which exhibit dichroism in the near infrared region (NIR). These materials consist of crosslinked poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and gold nanoparticles, coated with 1-dodecanethiol or tert-tetradecanethiol. The alkanethiols improve dispersibility of the gold particles, and accordingly composites were manufactured by diffusion of the particles into swollen self-supporting PDMS elastomer films. After drying, the films were exposed to solvents for one minute, stretched in wet state, dried again and annealed. This procedure led to formation of oriented linear gold particle assemblies within stretched polymer. If the aspect ratio of the particle assemblies is high, the absorption of polarized light in the NIR region is expected to depend on the angle between the polarization plane and the orientation direction of the particle assemblies, and this was observed to be the case.
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