Oxygen irradiation induced modification on the linear and nonlinear optical behavior of flexible MC/PANI/Ag polymeric nanocomposite films

Abstract

• Irradiated of flexible MC/PANI/Ag nanocomposite films using homemade cold cathode ion source. • Studying the effect of oxygen irradiation on the structural and functional groups of MC/PANI/Ag composite films. • Improving the linear and nonlinear optical behavior of the irradiated MC/PANI/Ag for optoelectronics applications. In the present work, flexible polymeric composite films composed of polyaniline (PANI), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), and methylcellulose (MC) are synthesized using solution cast preparation method for applied in optoelectronic devices. Subsequently, the MC/PANI/Ag films have been irradiated using broad beam homemade cold cathode ion source with oxygen fluence 8 × 10 17 , 16 × 10 17 , and 24 × 10 17 ions·cm −2 . The synergistic effects of oxygen irradiation on the structure, functional groups and optical properties of MC/PANI/Ag composite films are investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transforms infrared (FT-IR) and UV–Vis spectroscopy, respectively. The optical band gap and Urbach energy of un-irradiated and irradiated MC/PANI/Ag films were calculated using Tauc's relation. Furthermore, the linear optical parameters such as refractive index, dielectric constant, extinction coefficient, and dielectric loss are determined. Moreover, the Wemple and Di-Domenico model was used to compute the dispersion properties of the studied films. The non-linear optical susceptibility and non-linear refractive index of the un-irradiated and irradiated films were also evaluated. As a consequence, ion-induced structural and optical changes in MC/PANI/Ag composite films, which would clear the way for using irradiated MC/PANI/Ag flexible nanocomposite films for a range of applications, particularly optoelectronic devices.