Polymer film-metal composites

1. A method for preparing a polymer film-metal composite, the method comprising:

depositing on a surface, a composition comprising:

a cationic metal precursor;

a polymer film precursor that comprises a plurality of photopolymerizable groups; and

a photoreducer-photoinitiator; and

irradiating the composition under conditions to simultaneously reduce the cationic metal precursor and polymerize the photopolymerizable groups to obtain the polymer film-metal composite on the surface,

wherein the polymer film-metal composite comprises metal nanoparticles embedded in the polymer film precursor,

wherein the composition further comprises an agent that caps and/or stabilizes the nanoparticles, and

wherein the polymer film precursor is obtained from a method comprising: reacting a monomer comprising two or more photopolymerizable groups with an anchor precursor comprising at least one metal-anchoring group and at least one group that will react with the photopolymerizable groups.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the irradiating comprises flood exposure of the composition deposited on the surface.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises removing the composite from the surface to obtain a composite that has the negative of the surface pattern template thereon.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the irradiating comprises exposure of the composition deposited on the surface through a mask defining a pattern.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising removing the unexposed composition under conditions to leave the composite on the surface.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the surface is the inside of a hollow cavity.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer film precursor further comprises a plurality of metal-anchoring groups.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cationic metal precursor is a cationic gold precursor, a cationic silver precursor, a cationic copper precursor or combinations thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photopolymerizable groups are acrylate groups.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein an aqueous solution of the monomer is reacted with an aqueous solution of the anchor precursor.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one metal-anchoring group and the at least one group that will react with the photopolymerizable groups are the same and the anchor precursor is a bi-functional thiol, bi-functional primary amine or bi-functional silane.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the anchor precursor is dithiothreitol.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monomer further comprises an oligomeric poly(ethylene glycol).

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the monomer is poly(ethylene glycol)-diacrylate (PEGDA) or ethoxylated trimethylolpropane triacrylate (ETPTA).

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the monomer is PEGDA.

16. A polymer film-metal nanoparticle composite comprising a uniform distribution of metal nanoparticles embedded in a polymeric resin film, the polymeric resin film comprising a plurality of metal-anchoring groups, the metal-anchoring groups anchored to the nanoparticles, wherein the metal-anchoring groups are derived from dithiothreitol.

17. The polymer film-metal nanoparticle composite of claim 16 , wherein the metal nanoparticle is a gold nanoparticle, a silver nanoparticle, or a copper nanoparticle, or combinations thereof.

18. The polymer film-metal nanoparticle composite of claim 16 , wherein the polymeric resin film is an acrylate resin film, an epoxy resin film, a siloxane resin film, or combinations thereof.

19. The polymer film-metal nanoparticle composite of claim 18 , wherein the polymeric resin film further comprises an oligomeric poly(ethylene glycol).

20. The polymer film-metal nanoparticle composite of claim 16 , wherein the polymeric resin film is a poly(ethylene glycol)-diacrylate resin or an ethoxylated trimethylpropane triacrylate (ETPTA) resin.