Shape controlled synthesis of nanoparticles and their incorporation into polymers

Shape controlling of nanoparticles is a very important aspect in nanotechnology. By controlling the particle sizes and shapes in the 1-100 nm range virtually all material properties can be controlled. The current work focuses on the synthesis of such nanoparticles and subsequent incorporation of the different shaped nanoparticles into epoxy matrix. The object of current interest is to evaluate the use of metal nanoparticles in polymer-metal composites. Of particular interest is the case where the first connected path of metal particles occurs across the sample, called the percolation threshold. There has been evidence of a giant increase in capacitance at room temperature just below the percolation threshold. The current work is an initial step to use the current developments in nanotechnology to incorporate various shaped fillers in polymer matrices. This can shed light on fundamental theory behind the dielectric properties of polymer-metal dielectrics. For the current work silver has been chosen as the metal and epoxy has been chosen as the polymer matrix. Nanocubes, spheres and wires have been synthesized by current and novel methods and incorporated into epoxy.