An all-polymer photonic crystal slab sensor is presented, and shown to exhibit narrow resonant reflection with a FWHM of less than 1 nm and a sensitivity of 31 nm/RIU when sensing media with refractive indices around that of water. This results in a detection limit of 4.5 × 10(-6) RIU when measured in conjunction with a spectrometer of 12 pm/pixel resolution. The device is a two-layer structure...

The important characteristics of polymer/clay nanocomposites are stability, barrier properties and in the case of polyvinyl chloride also plasticizer migration into other materials. Therefore, the permeation properties of polymer/clay nanocomposites are discussed in this paper. The attention was focused to the polyethylene (PE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Natural type of montmorillonite MMTNa...

In this study, we report the fabrication and characterization of organic/inorganic hybrid polymer light emitting diodes (PLEDs) made with ZnS-capped CdSe core/shell type nanocrystals and a light-emitting polymer poly[2-phenyl-3-(9,9-dihexylfluoren-2-yl)-1,4-phenylene vinylene]-co-[2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene]. The device using pristine polymer as active layer emitted y...

The addition of inorganic spherical nanoparticles to polymers allows the modification of the polymers physical properties as well as the implementation of new features in the polymer matrix. This review article covers considerations on special features of inorganic nanoparticles, the most important synthesis methods for ceramic nanoparticles and nanocomposites, nanoparticle surface modification...

The use of a p-type inorganic semiconductor to form a nanorod scaffold within a polymer-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cell is reported. The performance of this cell is compared to those made of the commonly used n-type scaffold of ZnO, which has been reported many times in the literature. The scaffold is designed to improve charge-carrier collection by increased mobility in thicker sample...

A new organic-inorganic hybrid, [Pb(2)I(4)(C(4)H(13)N(3))](n), was obtained by the reaction of C(4)N(3)H(10) and PbI(2) at room temperature. The structure is a three-dimensional polymer resulting from the association of PbI(6) octa-hedra and a mixed lead organic-inorganic PbI(4)(C(4)N(3)H(13)) coordination polyhedron. Both Pb atoms, two I atoms and one N atom lie on a mirror plane. N-H⋯I hydrog...

Composites of nanocellulose with layered silicates have recently emerged as a new type of composite materials offering superior strength, as well as thermal and gas barrier properties. These organic-inorganic hybrid composites with a nacre-like structure can be obtained from renewable resources and are environmentally friendly. They can potentially be presented as a serious alternative in the n...

It has been shown that in hybrid polymer-inorganic photovoltaic devices not all the photogenerated excitons dissociate at the interface immediately, but can instead exist temporarily as bound charge pairs (BCPs). Many of these BCPs do not contribute to the photocurrent, as their long lifetime as a bound species promotes various charge carrier recombination channels. Fast and efficient dissociat...

The ban and restrictions on some of the brominated flame retardants (BFRs) has led to an increase in use and production of alternatives such as halogenated free flame retardants (HFFRs). Limited information is available on the occurrence and fate of inorganic HFFRs. Inorganic HFFRs such as aluminum polyphosphinate (AlPi), melamine polyphosphate (MPP) and zincstannate (ZS), dissociate into ions ...

Selective degradation of block copolymer templates and backfilling the open mesopores is an effective strategy for the synthesis of nanostructured hybrid and inorganic materials. Incorporation of more than one type of inorganic material in orthogonal ways enables the synthesis of multicomponent nanomaterials with complex yet well-controlled architectures; however, developments in this field hav...