**4. Applications of polymer-metal nanocomposites**

The embedding of noble metal nanoparticles as filler into organic polymer matrices gives superior thermal, electronic, optical and mechanical properties for the resulting polymer/ metal nanocomposite materials. The improvements and enhancement of the physical properties go with these materials to be used in different technical applications in many various


problem. The synthesis methods have to be tuned in such a way that gamma irradiation is used that avoids the agglomeration of nanoparticles. The mechanical parameters, Young's modulus, of the polymer/metal nanocomposites are highly dependent on the cross-linking density of the polymer, the morphology of the nanoparticles and the molecular interaction (intra- and intertype) between the metal nanoparticles and the polymer matrix. The optical properties of polymer/metal nanocomposites, such as the SPR intensity and position and the refractive index, are strongly dependent on the dimensions and shape of the metal nanoparticles, the dielectric functions of the metal and the surrounding material, the boundary between the particle and the surrounding, and the particle distribution in the surrounding matrix. The polymer/metal nanocomposites have a strong resistance toward the bacteria or antibacterial activity. The polymer capping metal nanocomposite materials have many various and important functional potential applications. Finally, it can be concluded that the main advantage of polymer/metal nanocomposites is the possibility to obtain the needed desired properties with higher quality than that from the conventional microcomposites by using very small volume of filler that can be low in magnitude by one

Polymer/Noble Metal Nanocomposites http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79016 61

or even two orders.

**Author details**

**References**

Ahmed Gamal Abed El-Azim Khalil El-Shamy

Address all correspondence to: agabedelazim@yahoo.com

Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

geneous solutions. Journal of Materials Chemistry. 2004;**14**:451-458

nanoparticles in polymer solutions. Colloid Journal. 2005;**67**:79-84

cles. Chemistry of Material Materials. 1996;**8**:1161

Materials. 2004:**16**:1685-1706. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.200400271

[1] Nicolais L, Carotenuto G. Metal-Polymer Nanocomposites. Hoboken: Wiley; 2005

[2] Goia DV. Preparation and formation mechanisms of uniform metallic particles in homo-

[3] Schmid G. Cluster and Colloids: From Theory to Applications. Weinham: VCH; 1994 [4] Volpe MV, Longo A, Pasquini L, Casuscelli V, Carotenuto G. Synthesis and characterization of gold-based quantum dots. Journal of Materials Science Letters. 2003:**22**:1697-1699

[5] Serebryakova NV, Uryupina, Roldughin VI. Formation of the bimodal ensemble of silver

[6] Hutter E, Fendler JH. Exploitation of Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance. Advanced

[7] Ahmadi TS, Wang ZL, Henglein A, El Sayed MA. "Cubic" Colloidal Platinum Nanoparti-

**Table 2.** Main application of polymer/metal nanocomposites in antibacteria.


**Table 3.** Application of polymer/metal nanocomposites.

fields, such as energy, environment, mechanics, optics, electronics, optical transformation technology, engineering, biology and medicine. Many applications like catalysts, membranes military equipment and separation devices, and solar cells, aerospace, fuel sensors, automobiles, antimicrobial, have been reported for the polymer/noble metal nanocompostes. Nanocomposite materials are used for this purpose, as shown in **Table 2**: tissue engineering, textiles and functional smart coatings, paints and drug carriers. Furthermore, the superior and high-quality mechanical and thermal properties of these nanocomposites allow them to be used in many various industrial applications, such as filters for irradiation protection, life power equipment, electronic devices, conductors and insulators in daily electrical tools, and pagers for the manufacturing of pressure molds in the ceramic industry. More details about the application of polymer/metal nanocomposites are shown in **Table 3**.

### **5. Conclusions**

From the previous discussion and clear different examples and principal strategies of the polymer/noble nanocomposites preparation mentioned in this chapter, it can be concluded that the radiolytic route for the synthesis of the nanocomposites is a smart way and a very easy method with a large possibility to solve the problems of the nanocomposite synthesis in the future. For polymer/metal nanocomposite synthesis, one main problem is the nanoparticles agglomeration and it must be solved: once obtained, and how to inhibit this problem. The synthesis methods have to be tuned in such a way that gamma irradiation is used that avoids the agglomeration of nanoparticles. The mechanical parameters, Young's modulus, of the polymer/metal nanocomposites are highly dependent on the cross-linking density of the polymer, the morphology of the nanoparticles and the molecular interaction (intra- and intertype) between the metal nanoparticles and the polymer matrix. The optical properties of polymer/metal nanocomposites, such as the SPR intensity and position and the refractive index, are strongly dependent on the dimensions and shape of the metal nanoparticles, the dielectric functions of the metal and the surrounding material, the boundary between the particle and the surrounding, and the particle distribution in the surrounding matrix. The polymer/metal nanocomposites have a strong resistance toward the bacteria or antibacterial activity. The polymer capping metal nanocomposite materials have many various and important functional potential applications. Finally, it can be concluded that the main advantage of polymer/metal nanocomposites is the possibility to obtain the needed desired properties with higher quality than that from the conventional microcomposites by using very small volume of filler that can be low in magnitude by one or even two orders.
