The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Functional organic-inorganic hybrid materials have attracted ceaseless interest over the past decades owing to their unique optical and absorption properties, making them promising candidates for applications in optical devices and solar cells. However, integrating inorganic components, primarily metals, into organic frameworks have faced challenges, as the tendency of metals to aggregate uncontrollably hinders the formation of high-fidelity structures and limits scalable, reproducible fabrication of hybrid structures with controlled spatial distribution of each component. Here, we present a strategy to localize metal salts within the subdomains of self-assembled polymer structures by incorporating functional end-groups, which strongly coordinate with metal ions. By varying the type and loading levels of metal salts, we investigated the resulting morphology, optical, and mechanical properties of the hybrid materials to explore their potential for use in advanced optical systems.