Whilst @entity852 microgels belong to the oldest family of microgel particles, their behaviours when deposited onto substrates or prepared as composites have received little attention. Because @entity852 microgels are solvent-swellable, and inherently colloidally stable, they are well suited to form composites with conjugated polymers. Here, we investigate the morphology and light absorption properties of spin coated composite films prepared from mixed dispersions of @entity852 microgels and @entity21432 ( @entity21433 ) for the first time. We compare the morphologies of the composite films to spin coated microgel films. The films were studied using optical microscopy, SEM, AFM, wide-angle X-ray diffraction and UV-visible spectroscopy. The films contained flattened microgel particles with an aspect ratio of    10. Microgel islands containing hexagonally close packed particles were evident for both the pure microgel and microgel/ @entity21433 composite films. The latter were electrically conducting. The composite film morphology was dependent on the microgel and @entity21433 concentration used for film preparation and a morphology phase diagram was constructed. The @entity21433 phase acted as an electrically conducting cement and increased the robustness of the films to solvent washing. The composite films were photoactive due to the @entity21433 component. The absorbance for the films was tuneable and increased linearly with both microgel and @entity21433 concentration. The results of the study should apply to other organic swellable microgel/conjugated polymer combinations and may lead to new colloidal composites for future optoelectronic applications.

Photoactive composite films prepared from mixtures of @entity852 microgel dispersions and XXXX solutions.

@entity852 :: ('MESH:D011137', 'Chemical') :: ['polystyrene'] @entity21433 :: ('CHEBI:60619', 'Chemical') :: ['P3HT'] @entity21432 :: ('MESH:C507295', 'Chemical') :: ['poly(3-hexylthiophene)']
@entity21432 :: (MESH:C507295,Chemical) :: ['poly(3-hexylthiophene)']
