Spectroscopic and Electrical Properties of Ag2S/PVA Nanocomposite Films for Visible-Light Optoelectronic Devices

• Published in: Journal of inorganic and organometallic polymers and materials Vol. 30; no. 10; pp. 3878 - 3885
• Main Authors: Alharthi, Sami S., Alzahrani, Ahmed, Razvi, M. A. N., Badawi, Ali, Althobaiti, Mohammed G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Banded structure; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composite structures; Direct current; Electrical properties; Electrical resistivity; Fillers; Fourier transforms; Infrared analysis; Inorganic Chemistry; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Optoelectronic devices; Organic Chemistry; Photoluminescence; Polymer Sciences; Polymers; Polyvinyl alcohol; Temperature dependence; DC conductivity; S; Ag; Photoluminescence; Optoelectronic devices; PVA nanocomposites; FTIR spectroscopy
• ISSN: 1574-1443; 1574-1451
• DOI: 10.1007/s10904-020-01519-4

Polymer nanocomposites are potential materials in the industrial sector and in our daily life due to their diverse properties and applications. Throughout the present study, solution casting technique has been used to prepare polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) filled with different weight (wt.) ratios percentages (%) (0, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 wt%) of silver sulfide nanoparticles (Ag 2 S NPs). The concentration dependence of spectroscopic and electrical behaviors based on PVA polymer dispersed with Ag 2 S has been investigated. The prepared films with the variation of loading filler concentrations from 0 to 10 wt% have been characterized by different spectroscopic techniques. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis confirmed the successful incorporation of Ag 2 S nanoparticles in the PVA matrix by studying the changes of the characterizing bands which reveal the interaction within the composite structure. Whilst photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the Ag 2 S/PVA nanocomposite films showed an interesting peak covering the entire range of interest for visible light optoelectronic devices at a very low concentration of the loading filler of Ag 2 S. The electrical properties of the plain and Ag 2 S NPs doped PVA nanocomposites have been studied using DC electrical conductivity (σ DC ) measurements performed over a temperature (T) range from 298 to 373 K. The study demonstrates the increase of the DC electrical conductivity with increasing filler content of Ag 2 S by three orders of magnitude. DC conductivity also showed temperature dependent behavior where the conductivity enhanced by five orders of magnitude when temperature increased up to 373 K. These novel results present Ag 2 S/PVA nanocomposites as a promising material in optoelectronics applications.