Determination of the dispersive optical constants of the poly(vinyl chloride) transparent nanocomposite layers containing nanosilver intercalated graphene

Abstract

Transparent nanocomposite PVC thin films containing the silver nanoparticles intercalated graphene (Ag/G) were prepared by simple solution blending process, followed by drop casting and annealing route. The optical properties of the nanocomposite thin films with various weight percentages of the Ag/G nanoparticles were investigated. The fundamental optical constants of the thin films were determined using the UV-Vis reflectance and transmittance spectroscopy at the wavelength range of 300–800 nm. Optical band gap has been determined from the absorption coefficient values using Tauc’s procedure. The optical band gap decreases from 3.79 eV for pure PVC film to 2.12 eV for the nanocomposite thin film with 5 wt% of the filler phase. The oscillator energy E0, dispersion energy Ed and other parameters were determined by the Wemple-DiDomenico method.