Photochemical synthesis of various metal nanoparticles in the presence of 2-thioxanthone thioacetic acid dioxide

Photopolymerization is an environmentally friendly polymerization method through radicals formed by the irradiation of photo-active substance. It is used as a highly effective method thanks to its advantages such as low temperature and low energy requirements. In recent years, nano-sized materials have attracted great interest both academically and industrially. In particular, composite materials containing noble metals are often preferred due to their optical and catalytic activity. These materials can be used in a variety of applications such as catalysis, medicine, wound dressing, optical information storage, sensor design, drug delivery and anti-corrosion applications depending on the properties of the nanoparticles. In this context, photochemical synthesis is a highly effective method for obtaining nanocomposite materials with rapid and desirable properties due to the fact that the in-situ photoreduction of metal salt to nano-size and the polymerization take place simultaneously. In this thesis, Au metallic, Ag metallic and Au/Ag bimetallic nanoparticles were synthesized in the presence of a new one component type II photoinitiator namely 2-thioxanthone thioacetic acid dioxide derivative by in-situ photoreduction both in solution and polymer matrix. The effect of the photoinitiator concentration on the nanoparticle size, shape and distribution was investigated and the characterization of the obtained nanoparticles was performed by UV-Vis spectrophotometry, DLS and SEM techniques. Additionally, ammonia gas detection properties of the prepared metallic and bimetallic nanocomposite films were investigated.