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

• Optically active amino acid-based polyacetylene copolymer is obtained.
• Optically active SPA@WO3 nanorod hybrids are successfully prepared.
• The SPA@WO3 organic/inorganic hybrid has a lower εTIR (0.527) than its components.

Optically active substituted polyacetylene (SPA)@WO3nanorod 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 (~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 μm 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.