Preparation of PVA/CMC/PVP blended polymer loaded with ZnS<inf>1-x</inf>Cu<inf>x</inf>; investigation of structural and linear/nonlinear optical properties

Abstract

Nonstoichiometric ZnS1-xCux powders have been loaded to 0.5PVA/0.25CMC/0.25PVP blended polymers using casting method. X-ray diffraction Rietveld analysis was performed for accurate quantification and structural parameters determination of the phases developed in the ZnS1-xCux nanofiller for different content of Cu (x). The surface morphology and chemical composition of the formed polymer blends were investigated using SEM and EDS analysis. The influence of loading the nanofiller with different (x) on the linear and nonlinear optical properties was explored utilizing the UV–vis diffuse reflectance. The variation in the absorption, transmittance, refractive index, extinction coefficient, dielectric constant, energy loss functions, the refractive index dispersion and optical conductivity of the obtained composites was tracked. The determined direct and indirect optical band gap energies of the unloaded blend are 5.16 and 4.92 eV, respectively, which were reduced nonlinearly attaining the lowest values (4.71, 3.5) eV for x = 0.1. The variation in the intensity of fluorescence (FL) and the colors emitted was investigated applying two excitation wavelengths, 317 and 380 nm.