A novel synthesis route for a gold–polymer soft composite material

We report on the synthesis of a metal–polymer composite material using an interfacial polymerization approach. The advantage of this approach is to form an intimate contact be‐tween the metal and polymer, which is an important param‐ eter for the synthesis of a nanocomposite material. It was found that polymerization of o‐phenylenediamine (PDA) us‐ing HAuCl4 as an oxidizing agent leads to the formation of poly‐PDA with a fiber‐like morphology, while the reduction of HAuCl4 results in the formation of well dispersed and sta‐bilized gold nanoparticles within the polymer matrix. The synthesis was carried out at the organic–aqueous interface. The resultant composite material was purely hydrophilic in nature and deposited at the aqueous fraction of the reaction medium. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)