A flexible recyclable self-cleaning substrate based on a polymer-plasmonic hybrid composite

The formation of nanocomposites including metals and organic conducting semiconductors offers significant potential to act as an effective flexible, lightweight platform that can support plasmon-based sensing. We demonstrate super band-gap irradiation of a polymer-plasmonic composite based upon the conducting polymers P3HT and PCBM to support the plasmon-enhanced based spectroscopic detection and then the removal of analytes. We demonstrate that such a polymer-plasmonic composite is an effective self-cleaning substrate for application as a reusable optical sensing substrate.