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This work presents a strategy to obtain plasmonic plastics by conventional large scale polymer processing methods using metal nanoparticles (Au and Ag) supported on sepiolite fibers acting as carriers. Two conventional polymers, polyethylene and polystyrene, have been used as matrices, and composites were prepared up to high inorganic contents. The resulting composites exhibited at all loadings the corresponding optical absorption plasmon bands ascribed to the metal nanoparticles. In addition the sepiolite fibers acting as carriers remarkably improved the thermal stability and produced mechanical reinforcement of the polymer matrices as well as they appear invisible due to the index matching with the matrix. Therefore, highly transparent and robust plasmonic plastics can be easily prepared by industrially scalable processing techniques.

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A metallized glaze, suitable for large‐scale production, has been obtained starting from sepiolite‐n(Cu, Fe) as a stable vector containing the metal‐dispersed nanoparticles and following a conventional fast‐firing fabrication route. A small fraction of black carbon (about 4 wt%) was added to the starting mixture of the glaze to avoid oxidation of Cu nanoparticles in the 500°–700°C temperature range. At higher temperature (700°–1190°C), a fraction of the oxygen dissolved in the glassy phase is consumed by the Fe°/Fe2+ and Fe2+/Fe3+ redox reaction. Based on ellipsometric and quantitative optical reflectance measurements, it has been proven that the presence of a minimum concentration of Cu nanoparticles (∼10 vol%) in the top surface glaze layer is a prerequisite to obtain an appropriate metalize glaze.

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