The latter proves to be highly soluble in the most common organic solvents. Solutions of the polymer MEH-PPV selleck screening library and the cadmium complex allow to obtain large area composite films by spin coating, making the proposed technique not expensive and ideal to fabricate optoelectronic devices. Methods All the reagents used to synthesize the precursor and the polymer were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich S.r.l., Milan, Italy, and used without further purification. All the nanocomposites were prepared using the pristine polymer MEH-PPV with a number of average molecular weight (Mn) of 70,000 to 100,000. The synthesis of Cd(SBz)2 was

conducted using the commercial salt cadmium nitrate hexahydrate (9 mmol) as starting reagent. After the dissolution of cadmium salt in ethanol, an aqueous solution this website of ammonium hydroxide (25%) was added and, as a consequence, the starting opaque solution became clear. When the benzyl mercaptan (18 mmol) was added in the reaction vessel, the desired product precipitated in quantitative yield and it was isolated

from the solution by filtration. The soluble complex [Cd(SBz)2]2·MI was performed suspending the GSK1904529A thiolate Cd(SBz)2 and adding dropwise 1-methyl imidazole (MI) until a clear solution was obtained. The product was purified by crystallization from toluene, cooling the solution to −18°C. Thermogravimetric analysis (Netzsch-Gerätebau GmbH STA429 simultaneous thermal analyzer, Selb, Germany) allowed to confirm the general formula of the obtained Lewis base-derived complex [Cd(SBz)2]2·MI in which the stoichiometric ratio between thiolate and MI is 2:1 [13]. The precursor/polymer composite films were produced by spin coating on glass slides, silicon wafers and copper grids from the solutions of [Cd(SBz)2]2 .MI and MEH-PPV in chloroform with a respective weight/weight ratio of 1:4, 2:3 and 4:1, respectively. The same procedure was realized using an inert polymer as polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) for comparative aims. The spin speed and time were set

at 1,500 rpm and 10 s, respectively, in order to obtain uniform and smooth U0126 polymer films. For all samples, the thermolysis process was performed at temperatures of 175°C, 185°C and 200°C for 30 min with a reproducible controlled ramp and in nitrogen atmosphere to avoid possible oxidation of NCs surface. Optical properties of the annealed samples, by means of a Xe lamp (LC8 Hamamatsu, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka, Japan) and a HR460 monochromator (Jobin Yvon, Kyoto, Japan), were investigated on chloroform solutions obtained by the samples deposited on glass. UV-visible transmission were performed in order to evaluate the absorbance of the specimens as ln(1/T). Photoluminescence (PL) spectra were acquired on the same chloroform solutions with a Varian Cary Eclipse Fluorometer, Palo Alto, CA, USA, (excitation wavelength, 330 nm).