We describe a facile fabrication of white light-emitting cadmium sulfide (CdS)-poly(HEA-co-NVK) nanocomposites [2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) and N-vinylcarbazole (NVK)] via plasma-ignited frontal polymerization (PIFP), a novel and rapid reaction mode of converting monomers into polymers in minutes. Frontal polymerization was initiated by igniting the upper side of the reactant with plasma. Once initiated, no additional energy was required for the polymerization to occur. The chemical functional groups of the as-prepared nanocomposites were thoroughly investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectra. The dependence of the front velocity and front temperature on the initiator concentration and weight ratios of HEA/NVK was also investigated in detail. Perhaps more interestingly, the white light-emitting materials synthesized by ingeniously incorporating the compensating colors of yellow emitting from 3-(trimethoxysilyl)-1-propanethiol-capped CdS nanocrystals and blue emitting from carbazole-containing polymer were conveniently applied onto a commercial UV light-emitting diode (LED) to generate white LEDs. The subtle change in the weight ratios of CdS/NVK can significantly impact the color hue. The white light becomes gradually colder with the increase of NVK, but becomes gradually warmer with the increase concentration of CdS nanocrystals. In a broad perspective, these white light-emitting materials designed by PIFP approach will open a new pathway to develop QD-polymer nanocomposite down-conversion LED in a fast and efficient way. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012