1. The University of New Mexico Center for Micro-Engineered Materials and Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
2. Sandia National Laboratories, Advanced Materials Laboratory, 1001 University Blvd SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106, USA
3. These authors contributed equally to this work.
4. Present address: Tulane University Chemical Engineering Department, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, USA (Y.L.); Canon Research and Development Center Americas, San Jose, California 95134, USA (A.S.).

Correspondence to: C. Jeffrey Brinker^2,3 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to C.J.B. (e-mail: Email: cjbrink@sandia.gov).

Abstract

Nature abounds with intricate composite architectures composed of hard and soft materials synergistically intertwined to provide both useful functionality and mechanical integrity. Recent synthetic efforts to mimic such natural designs have focused on nanocomposites^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, prepared mainly by slow procedures like monomer or polymer infiltration of inorganic nanostructures^{6, 7} or sequential deposition^{8, 9}. Here we report the self-assembly of conjugated polymer/silica nanocomposite films with hexagonal, cubic or lamellar mesoscopic order using polymerizable amphiphilic diacetylene molecules as both structure-directing agents and monomers. The self-assembly procedure is rapid and incorporates the organic monomers uniformly within a highly ordered, inorganic environment. Polymerization results in polydiacetylene/silica nanocomposites that are optically transparent and mechanically robust. Compared to ordered diacetylene-containing films prepared as Langmuir monolayers¹⁰ or by Langmuir–Blodgett deposition¹⁰, the nanostructured inorganic host alters the diacetylene polymerization behaviour, and the resulting nanocomposite exhibits unusual chromatic changes in response to thermal, mechanical and chemical stimuli. The inorganic framework serves to protect, stabilize, and orient the polymer, and to mediate its function. The nanocomposite architecture also provides sufficient mechanical integrity to enable integration into devices and microsystems.

1. The University of New Mexico Center for Micro-Engineered Materials and Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
2. Sandia National Laboratories, Advanced Materials Laboratory, 1001 University Blvd SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106, USA
3. These authors contributed equally to this work.
4. Present address: Tulane University Chemical Engineering Department, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, USA (Y.L.); Canon Research and Development Center Americas, San Jose, California 95134, USA (A.S.).

Correspondence to: C. Jeffrey Brinker^2,3 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to C.J.B. (e-mail: Email: cjbrink@sandia.gov).