Tailoring the Structural and Optical Features of PVA/SiO2-CuO Polymeric Nanocomposite for Optical and Gamma Ray Shielding Applications

• Published in: SILICON 2024-02, Vol.16 (4), p.1407-1419
• Main Authors: Oreibi, Idrees, Habeeb, Majeed Ali, Hamza, Rehab Shather Abdul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorptivity; Attenuation coefficients; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Copper oxides; Corrosion resistance; Energy gap; Environmental Chemistry; Gamma rays; Inorganic Chemistry; Lasers; Materials Science; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology devices; Optical Devices; Optical microscopes; Optical properties; Optics; Optoelectronic devices; Photonics; Photovoltaic cells; Polymer Sciences; Polyvinyl alcohol; Refractivity; Silicon dioxide; Solar cells; Weight reduction
• ISSN: 1876-990X; 1876-9918
• DOI: 10.1007/s12633-023-02769-w

This study aims to produce novel nanocomposite films by incorporating nanostructures (SiO 2 and CuO) into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to utilize these nanocomposites in various optoelectronic nanodevices. The PVA/SiO 2 -CuO nanostructures exhibit notable attributes such as low cost, enhanced corrosion resistance, favorable optical properties, and reduced weight compared to alternative nanosystems. This study focused on investigating the structural and optical properties of nanostructures composed of PVA/SiO 2 -CuO. The FTIR spectra suggest the presence of a physical interaction between the pristine polymer and nanoparticles. The optical microscope was utilized to analyze the nanocomposite's structural characteristics and surface morphology alterations. The findings about the optical characteristics indicate a notable increase of approximately 180% in absorption, accompanied by a decrease of about 48% in the energy gap for allowed indirect transitions and 72% for forbidden indirect transitions. These changes were observed when the PVA/SiO 2 -CuO content reached a weight percentage of 6%. Consequently, this material exhibits potential suitability for various optoelectronic devices, such as photovoltaic cells, solar cells, diodes, transistors, lasers, electronic gates, and other fields. The optical characteristics of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) were enhanced as the concentration of SiO 2 -CuO nanoparticles (NPs) increased, leading to improvements in the absorption coefficient (α), refractive index (n), extinction coefficient (k), real (ε 1 ) and imaginary (ε 2 ) parts of the dielectric constants, optical conductivity (σ op ), and dispersion factors. The prepared nanocomposites underwent testing to evaluate their effectiveness in shielding gamma rays. The experimental findings indicate that the nanocomposite films of PVA/SiO 2 -CuO exhibit significant attenuation coefficients when exposed to gamma rays. Thus, it can be seen that incorporating (SiO 2 -CuO) NPs has enhanced the optical properties of the resulting nanocomposite, and this material can be considered a promising material for flexible optoelectronic applications and gamma ray shielding.