• Universitat de València

In recent years, one of the most promising lines of research is the field of plasmonics due to the large number of technological applications. Plasmonics is based on the excitation of surface plasmons that are produced on the surface of micro and nanoparticles of noble metals such as Au and Ag.

Normally, the fabrication and deposition of these nanoparticles requires high temperatures to carry out both the evaporation of solvents and the necessary chemical reactions.

One of the problems with this synthesis method is that it prevents the manufacture of these materials on flexible plastics such as labels, and with high reaction times, limiting their integration in industrial manufacturing processes.

Researchers at the Universitat de València have developed a new nanomechanical recovery for use as a photocatalyst in the ultrafast synthesis of nanoparticles embedded inside organic polymers and metal oxides by exposure to ultraviolet light.

The recovery is carried out from a dissolution of metal oxides and its thin film deposition is able to absorb UV light (curing) and photocatalyse the reactions in solid state, with exposure times of seconds with excellent reaction performances and excellent adhesion properties.

Contrary to what is commonly used by the scientific community, the metal oxide layer does not require any prior treatment such as calcination for its activation as a photocatalyst, as it is produced during the deposition process and at ambient temperature.

These characteristics allow the manufacture of metal nanoparticles forming the nanomechanical recovery on flexible plastic substrates as self-adhesive labels, significantly reducing the manufacturing time.

The fabrication and deposition of nanomaterials as well as metals, semiconductors and thin-film insulators have innumerable uses in industrial processes and multifunctional devices with applications in catalysis, sensing, biotechnology, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, photonics and microelectronics.

The procedure described has the following advantages:

• Speed: Improvement of the time needed to prepare the materials.
• Reduced investment cost: Lower cost of the equipment needed to apply the process.
• Printing on flexible plastic materials and ambient temperature for the process.

• Patent applied