Helical monosubstituted polyacetylene@CdSe quantum dots (HPA@CdSe QDs) nanocomposites were fabricated by grafting helical HPA polymers onto the surface of semiconductor QDs through ester linkage. Optically active HPA derived from chiral serine was polymerized by a rhodium zwitterion catalyst, and evidently proved to adopt a predominately single-handed helical conformation. The HPA@QDs nanocomposites were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results indicate that the HPA matrix exhibits an enhancement in thermal stability after hybridization with CdSe QDs, while the QDs can maintain their original crystalline structure during the grafting process. The infrared emissivity property of the HPA@QDs nanocomposites at 8-14 μm was further investigated. These data demonstrated that the HPA@QDs composite film with doped CdSe QDs possesses an infrared emissivity value of 0.393, which was much lower than pristine HPA and QDs. This might be attributed to the incorporation of optically active helical HPA and semiconductor QDs in a hybrid phase and their strengthened interfacial interaction.
Optically active polyacetylene: Synthesis and helical conformation of a poly(phenylacetylene) carryingL-alanyl-L-alanine pendants