Characterization, Optical and Conductivity Study of Nickel Oxide Based Nanocomposites of Polystyrene

S S El-Khiyami,A M Ismail,R S Hafez

doi:10.1007/s10904-021-02041-x

Abstract

Different concentrations of nickel oxide (NiO) nanoparticles were successfully inserted into polystyrene (PS) polymer matrix using the solution casting method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), High-resolution scanning electron microscope (HRSEM), and UV–Vis techniques are used to characterize the nanocomposites. XRD, HRSEM, and FT-IR results indicate that PS and NiO nanoparticles have a good interaction and a high degree of complexity. Using UV–Vis technique, the absorbance of nanocomposites is improved by increasing the nanofiller content. Both the Urbach energy (EU) and the optical energy gap (Eg) were calculated using the Urbach relation and the Tauc model. Refractive indices values of nanocomposites display raising trend with NiO content which promote PS/NiO nanocomposites for use in photonic applications and designing optical devices. Electrical conductivity of nanocomposites were also investigated. The electrical conductivity of the nanocomposites has increased significantly due to the uniform dispersion of NiO nanoparticles and by increasing its content. Conduction is achieved by correlated barrier hopping (CBH).

Highlights

A polymer nanocomposite (NCs) is a composite material consisting of a polymer matrix and at least one nanometric dimension inorganic material
3.1 X-ray diffraction analysis The XRD of nickel (II) oxide (NiO) NPs, PS, and PS doped with various NiO NP concentrations is investigated
0.9 λ β cos θ where D is the crystallite size, λ = 0.154 nm is the X-ray wavelength, β is the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the diffraction peak and θ is the Bragg’s diffraction angle of the peak maximum

Summary

Introduction

A polymer nanocomposite (NCs) is a composite material consisting of a polymer matrix and at least one nanometric dimension inorganic material. Polymer/inorganic NCs combine the properties of the two components. Nickel (II) oxide (NiO) has gained a lot of attention in recent years as a promising inorganic material for a range of applications, including gas sensors, batteries, electrodes, and electronics [11,12,13,14,15,16]. Nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO) NP were inserted into a polystyrene matrix in this work. A appropriate amount of polystyrene (PS) and nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO) NPs was dissolved in 50 ml of tetrahydrofurane separately, The mixture was vigorously stirred for 3 hours at 40°C. The optical measurements of the prepared films were investigated using UV-630 (Shimadzu) UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer. Dielectric measurements were performed using Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS) type Novocontrol concept 40

Results and discussion

Optical absorption edge and Urbach energy

Optical energy gap

Frequency dependence conductivity

Conclusion