Thioxanthone functionalized silver nanorods as smart photoinitiating assemblies to generate photopolymer/metal nano-objects

Silver nanorods (AgNRs) with lengths in the 50-60 nm range were synthesized and functionalized with 2-(2-mercaptoethyl)thioxanthone (C2TX) to generate AgNR@C2TX nanoassemblies. When irradiated at 377 nm in the presence of a diacrylate monomer, these dispersed nanoassemblies initiate radical photopolymerization, indicating that the excited singlet to triplet intersystem crossing process of C2TX in the vicinity of AgNRs was favored while the fluorescence of C2TX was completely quenched at the surface of NRs. SEM and TEM images confirmed the formation of a AgNR-polymer nanocomposite and the homogeneous dispersion of AgNRs in the polymer film. Moreover, under specific experimental conditions allowing the spatial extent of the polymerization to be limited, polymer-capped AgNRs were obtained (polymer diameter of ca. 1 nm).