Fabrication and characterization of optically active polyacetylene @WO3 nanorodhybrids with low infrared emissivity

Optically active substituted polyacetylene (SPA)@WO3 nanorod hybrids have been fabricated via a "grafting to" strategy which involves preformation of amino acid-based SPA, surface modification of WO3 nanorods and subsequent organic/inorganic grafting. Various characterization data clearly show that the hybrids exhibit core-shell construction composed of an inorganic WO3 nanorod core and an organic SPA shell. The SPA outer shell (similar to 0.073 g/(g hybrids))was grafted to the nanorod without any destruction to the crystalline structure of WO3 and still maintained considerable optical activity. The infrared emissivity of SPA@WO3 at the wavelength of 8-14 mu m was investigated, and the result demonstrated that the infrared emissivity value of SPA@WO3 hybrids was reduced to 0.527, while the bare WO3 nanorods possessed a value of 0.885. The enhancement in lowering infrared emissivity could be attributed to the synergistic effect of helical SPA coating and intensified interfacial interactions between organics and inorganics. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.