Photonic metal-polymer resin nanocomposites with chiral nematic order.

Mesoporous resins with chiral nematic order were used as scaffolds to construct novel iridescent metal-polymer composites. Gold, silver and palladium nanoparticles were formed by an in situ reduction reaction. We have investigated the effects of concentration and time on the deposition. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate that this process can be extended to patterning photonic resins by inkjet printing.