Extraction of aqueous gold sols with styrene/2-venylpyridine blockcopolymers in toluene

Polymers containing small noble-metal particles are of interest for catalysis and in the generation of optically tunable composites. The currently used process results in materials which are often difficult to process. A method is presented here for the direct transfer of small gold particles from an aqueous sol into a non-aqueous polymer solution (e.g. a block copolymer, see Figure) facilitating the formation of films.