Fabrication, structural investigation and comparative optical characterization of copper polymer nanocomposites

Abstract

In this work, a homemade ion beam deposition technique is used to fabricate nanocomposites films consisting of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) embedded in a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and in polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) polymers. Then study the comprehensive effect of the deposited CuNPs on the optical and structural properties of PET and PTFE polymers. The structural investigation of the PET and PTFE polymers as well as the Cu/PET and Cu/PTFE composites is carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD data showed CuNPs are deposited successfully on PET and PTFE films. The optical characterization of the prepared films is studied using UV–Vis spectroscopy techniques, to confirms the changes in the optical band gap Eg and carbon cluster number N. The UV–Vis optical absorption demonstrate a slight shift in the absorption edge towards visible region by increasing Cu deposition time on both PET and PTFE polymers. Increasing Cu deposition time is leads to slight decrease in optical energy band gap Eg and an increase in the numbers of carbon cluster N. The Eg is decreased from 3.8 to 2.2 eV for Cu/PET and from 3.1 to 2.3 eV for Cu/PTFE while N is increased from 82 to 244 for Cu/PET and from 113 to 224 for Cu/PTFE by increasing the Cu deposition time from 25 to 75 min. The obtained results of Cu/PET and Cu/PTFE polymer nanocomposites are opening new fields for applicable optoelectronic devices.