Polymer Testing (Nov 2024)
Flexible and innovative PVA/ZrO2/g-C3N4/CNT nanocomposites film for optoelectronic applications
Abstract
This study successfully prepared polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer films doped with ZrO2/(g-C3N4/CNT) nanofillers using the solution casting technique. The crystal structure of the nanocomposite films was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), revealing the semi-crystalline nature of PVA and an average ZrO2 crystallite size of 13.17 nm. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the chemical composition and functional groups present in the nanocomposites. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis showed uniform dispersion of the nanofillers without noticeable phase separation, with EDX confirming the successful incorporation of ZrO2, g-C3N4, and CNT into the PVA matrix. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) further validated the elemental composition and chemical states, indicating the presence of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and zirconium. Optical analysis demonstrated that increasing ZrO2/(g-C3N4/CNT) content reduced the direct and indirect band gaps from 5.41 eV to 5.25 eV and from 5.18 eV to 4.92 eV, respectively. In addition, the single-oscillator energy (E0) and dispersion energy (Ed) increased, while the static refractive index (n0) decreased. Improvements were also observed in linear optical susceptibility (χ(1)) and third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility (χ(3)), enhancing the polarizability of the polymer molecules. These results indicate that PVA films doped with ZrO2/(g-C3N4/CNT) hold promise for optoelectronic applications due to their enhanced optical properties.
