Studying the optical and thermal properties of Cs/ZnO and Cs/ZnO/GO hybrid nanocomposites

Abstract

Green nanotechnology, defined as the synthesis or hybridization of nanomaterials with natural bioactive compounds, is a low-cost, eco-friendly, easy-to-manage and non-toxic technology. Nanocomposites have recently gained attention due to their unique characteristics and applications in the fabrication of microelectronic circuits, sensors, piezoelectric devices, optoelectronic components, fuel cells, corrosion surface passivation coatings, and catalysts. Accordingly, chitosan (Cs), a bioactive polymer, was hybridized with nanomaterials including ZnO and graphene oxide (GO) utilizing two easy, eco sustainable, and low-cost methods of preparation. All samples were analyzed using different analytical techniques. The FTIR and NMR results confirmed that the interaction between Cs, ZnO and GO occurs through the NH2 function group of Cs with ZnO and the O of the carboxyl group COOH of GO. Furthermore, the SEM data show the agglomeration generated by ZnO and GO on the Cs surface. According to the optical characterization of hybrid Cs/ZnO/GO, the one-pot preparation method achieves the lowest indirect and direct optical band gap values of 0.176 and 3.18 eV, respectively. Furthermore, it has a larger Eu = 5.46 eV value than the other samples, indicating a higher degree of disorder and high conductivity. Finally, the TGA results showed that hybridization of Cs with ZnO and Go improved the temperature decomposition and degradation of Cs by 79.9%. As a result, the one-pot approach for creating CS/ZnO/GO hybrid nanocomposite is effective for preparing Cs/ZnO/GO as an optoelectronic material.