ABSTRACT
In recent years, considerable efforts have been devoted for search new functional nanocomposite materials with unique properties that are lacking in their traditional analogues. Control of these properties is an important fundamental problem. The use of nanocrystals as one of the elements of a polymer composite opens up new possibilities for targeted modification of its optical properties because of a strong dependence of the electronic structure of nanocrystals on their sizes and geometric shapes. An increase in the number of nanocrystals in the bulk of composites is expected to enhance long range correlation effects on their properties. Among the known nanocrystals, nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) attracts high attention due to its extraordinary optoelectronic properties and manifestation of quantum size effects. Therefore, it is widely used for designing new generation functional materials for nanoelectronics and information technologies. The use of nc-Si in polymer composites calls for a knowledge of the processes of its interaction with polymeric media. Solid nanoparticles can be combined into aggregates (clusters), and when the percolation threshold is achieved, a continuous cluster is formed.
