Silver-soda glass nanocomposites have been synthesized by using ion exchange technique followed by thermal annealing. Ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy of the ion exchanged and annealed samples confirmed the presence of silver nanoparticles embedded inside the glass matrix. The size of silver nanoparticles has been found to increase with annealing temperature. The frequency response of the dielectric constant (ε′) and dielectric loss (tan δ) has been studied in both the soda glass and the silver nanoparticle embedded soda glass samples. The dielectric constant increases from 0.9 to 1.89 in the frequency range from 900 kHz to 70 MHz with increasing silver nanoparticle size, which in turn is enhanced as a result of increasing annealing temperature. Possible Coulomb blockade effects have been discussed to explain this novel dielectric behavior.

Transparent polycarbonate samples were implanted with 1 MeV Ag + ions to various doses ranging from 5 × 10 14 to 3 × 10 16 ions cm −2 with a beam current density of 900 nA cm −2 . Modification in the structure of polycarbonate as a function of the implantation fluence was investigated using micro-Raman spectroscopy, glancing angle X-ray diffraction, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopy pointed toward the formation of graphite structures/clusters due to the ion implantation. UV-Vis absorption analysis suggests the formation of a carbonaceous layer and a drastic decrease in optical band gap from 4.12 eV to 0.50 eV at an implanted dose of 3 × 10 16 ions cm −2 . The correlation between the decrease in band gap and the structural changes is discussed.

Copper nanoparticles have been synthesized in polycarbonate by 75 KeV Cu -ion implantation with various doses ranging from 6⋅4 × 10 15 to 1⋅6 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 with a beam current density of 800 nA/cm 2 . The composites formed were structurally characterized using Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Visible) absorption spectroscopy. The appearance of particle plasmon resonance peak, characteristic of copper nanoparticles at 603 nm in absorption spectra of polycarbonate implanted to a dose of 1⋅6 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 , indicates towards the formation of copper nanoparticles in polycarbonate. Transmission electron microscopy further confirms the formation of copper nanoparticles having size ~ 3⋅15 nm. The formation of copper nanoparticles in the layers carbonized by Cu -implantation has been discussed. The synthesized copper-polycarbonate nanocomposite has been found to be more conducting than polycarbonate as ascertained using current-voltage characteristics.

Soda glass metal nanocomposite having Ag nanoparticles has been synthesized by the combined use of ion exchange method and subsequent thermal annealing. Remarkable changes in photoluminescence and UV-Visible spectra of resulting nanocomposite as a function of post annealing temperature has been observed. These changes can be attributed to the structural rearrangement of silver during heat treatment. In UV-Visible spectra, characteristic surface plasmon resonance peak of silver nanoparticles has been observed around 430 nm. Photoluminescence spectra of the silver exchanged soda glass samples show a dominant peak at 547 nm. At an annealing temperature of 450 º C photoluminescence intensity is the maximum followed by a decreasing trend upto 600 º C.