Preparation and characterization of polyimide-nanogold nanocomposites from 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane encapsulated gold nanoparticles

In this study, we report a new design to prepare polyimide-nanogold nanocomposites of high Au content and good thermal stability. The nanocomposites were prepared from the coupling agent (3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, APS) capped poly(amic acid) (PAA-APS) and 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS) stabilized gold nanoparticles (MPS-Au). The Si-OR groups of MPS on the surface of MPS-Au provided further reaction with APS, hence the covalent bonds between PAA and MPS-Au were formed. PAA-Au was converted into PI-Au nanocomposite by a multiple-step baking. The results of particle-sized analysis show that the sizes of the synthesized MPS-Au from different MPS/Au mole ratios (2 and 0.5) are about 2 nm and 5 nm, respectively. FE-SEM images show that MPS-Au particles are dispersed well in the prepared nanocomposites and no large-scale aggregation occurs. TGA results indicate that the decomposition temperature of each nanocomposite prepared from its washed precursor is lower than that of APS-capped polyimide, but the temperature of maximum decomposed rate of each nanocomposite is higher than that of APS-capped polyimide. The results show the high thermal stability and application potentials of the prepared polyimide-nanogold nanocomposites.