Enhanced electrical properties of few layers MoS2-PVA nanocomposite film via homogeneous dispersion and annealing effect induced by 80 MeV Carbon6+ swift heavy ion irradiation

Abstract

Swift heavy ion beam irradiation is an advanced method to tune or modify the properties of a wide class of materials up to an electronic level. High-performance polymer nanocomposites are a class of materials that have drawn immense scientific attention due to their remarkable properties in the field of organic electronics. In this work, MoS2 nanosheets are first synthesized via solvent assisted exfoliation and then incorporated as filler in Polyvinyl alcohol matrix. The free-standing polymer nanocomposite film was irradiated using 80 MeV Carbon swift ion beam at 1 × 1010 ions/cm2, 1 × 1011 ions/cm2 and 3 × 1011 ions/cm2 to induce structural, spectroscopic and electrical changes due to high deposition of energy. XRD and Raman reveal the annealing effect at low fluence of at 1 × 1010 ions/cm2. Upon Swift heavy ion irradiation, a remarkable rise in the conductivity for application in organic electronics, from 2.58E-5 S/cm to 2.43E-3 S/cm at 1 × 1010 ions/cm2 has been observed. The conductivity continues to rise with increase in ion fluence and attains a value of 4.92E-3 S/cm at 3 × 1011 ions/cm2. This is attributed to the formation of conductive tracks and homogeneous dispersion upon SHI irradiation in accordance with Thermal spike model.