Radiation effect on characterization and physical properties of polymer nano composites

Polymeric materials are of interest in scientific and technological research, because they can be tailored to meet specific requirement for a verity of applications, this is mainly due to their light weight, good mechanical strength, and optical properties.From which, Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) is one of the most important polymeric materials, because it has many applications in industry and is of relatively low cost in manufacture. It is well documented that electrical and optical properties of polymers can be improved to a desired limit through suitable doping. In this concern, and since Ag⁺ is a fast conducting ion in a number of crystalline and amorphous materials, its incorporation within a polymeric system may be expected to enhance its electrical and optical properties. In the present study the PVA/Ag nano composite with different contents of inorganic phase of (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) wt % were prepared by reduction of Ag⁺ ions in PVA solution using gamma irradiation with different dose of (15, 25, 50, 75, 100) kGy. The Ag particle size was found to be around 14.0 nm based on the UV-Vis spectroscopy and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) measurements. Also, the structural studies of the synthesized PVA/Ag nano composites have been carried out through FTIR, and XRD studies. Further, the dependence of the optical and electrical properties of PVA on the concentration of the embedded nano-Ag was reported. As well, the effects of γ- irradiation have been studied applying UV-Vis spectroscopy and electrical characteristics measurements, respectively.