Impact of inorganic hybrid nanofiller on structural, optical, thermal and dielectric properties polymer nanocomposites for optoelectronic devices

Abstract

Nanocomposite (NC) films of poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) incorporated with varying amounts of Calcium Cadmium doped Aluminum oxide (CaCdAl2O5) nanoparticles (NPs) have been fabricated by solution intercalation technique. TEM result showed the size of NPs between 8-34nm. The effects of NPs content on structural and morphological behaviors of PVA have been established by XRD, FTIR and SEM techniques. Electrical properties of NC films were performed using LCR-meter. Current (I)-voltage (V) data displayed dc-conductivity increased with increasing NPs content and trends of I–V indicate the dominant Ohmic behavior at voltage <5V and above that Poole–Frenkel emission is the dominant conduction mechanism. Ac-conductivity increases with increase in frequency and dosage of NPs. The maximum ac-conductivity obtained in this investigation is 2.43x10-5 S/cm for PVA/8wt% CaCdAl2O5. The reduction in Tg with increment NPs contents was observed. The optical behaviors of NCs were deduced by UV visible spectroscopy where the result showed band gap energy was reduced from 5.23eV to 3.25eV whereas refractive index increased from 1.71 to 2.44 for pure PVA and PVA/8wt% CaCdAl2O5, respectively.