Soft chemistry strategies for the development of responsive thin films with tunable plasmonic and photonic properties

G.J. A. A. SOLER ILLIA; M. L. MARTÍNEZ-RICCI; FUERTES, M. C.; ANGELOMÉ, P. C.

Conferencia; What is Bright with Light?; 2016

Soft chemical methods such as sol?gel synthesis and self-assembly, controlled phaseseparation and chemical surface modification can be combined in order to create highlycontrolled optical nanosystems ?decorated? with organic, biological or nanoscalefunctions precisely located in space. For example, Mesoporous Thin Films (MTF) withtailored architecture are interesting for the possibility of tunable optical, electronic orcatalytic properties, and the compatibility with the electronics industry. Each highlycontrolled MTF originated from a reproducible and modular synthesis is in itself abuilding block for more complex structures, presenting synergic properties derived fromthe control of the spatial location of well controlled components at different lengthscales (molecular, mesoscopic, macroscopic).Examples of MHTF architectures with tailored optical properties will be presented.In particular we will focus in Mesoporous Photonic Crystals (MPC), which are stimuli-responsive, and Nanoparticle-Mesoporous Nanocomposites (NMNC) that permit toharness the plasmonic properties. The combination of the photonic and plasmonicproperties of MPC and NMNC permits to exploit light confinement or amplificationwith applications in SERS, optical waveguide sensors or photocatalysts.