Effect of polypyrrole on structural, optical and thermal properties of CMC-based blends for optoelectronic applications

Abstract

In this work, solution casting was used to create a hybrid polymer system based on sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and polypyrrole (CMC-PPy) with varying weight ratios of PPy. X-ray diffraction and UV/VIS spectroscopy were used to study the interaction between CMC and PPy and revealed the predominance of the amorphous regions. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) examined the morphological properties and homogeneity of the present blends. Two stages of degradation were identified by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), which was performed to verify the thermal stability of the present system. The domination of amorphous regions over the crystalline regions within the synthesized films decreased the optical energy gap. The optical conductivity, the band gap metallization criteria (MEg), and the refractive index (n) of the CMC/PPy samples were carefully studied. The Urbach energy (Eurb) has attained a significant enhancement where its value was increased from 0.79 eV for pure CMC to 1.7 eV for the sample with 10 wt% of PPy (CP10), improving its optical properties. The roughness coefficients, such as average roughness (Ra), root mean square (Rq), surface skewness (Rsk), and surface kurtosis (Rku), were determined. The Rku value of the CP10 sample was 2.8747, which achieved the best rough nature, in addition to lowering the value of Ra, enhancing the contact features, and thus increasing its applicability in advanced technological applications, especially in the optoelectronic sector.