Synthesis, Optical, Chemical and Thermal Characterizations of PMMA-PS/CeO2 Nanoparticles Thin Film

Areen A Bani-Salameh; A A Ahmad; A M Alsaad; I A Qattan; Ihsan A Aljarrah

doi:10.3390/polym13071158

Synthesis, Optical, Chemical and Thermal Characterizations of PMMA-PS/CeO₂ Nanoparticles Thin Film

Polymers (Basel). 2021 Apr 4;13(7):1158. doi: 10.3390/polym13071158.

Authors

Areen A Bani-Salameh¹, A A Ahmad¹, A M Alsaad¹, I A Qattan², Ihsan A Aljarrah¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Sciences, Jordan University of Science & Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid 22110, Jordan.
² Department of Physics, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 127788, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

We report the synthesis of hybrid thin films based on polymethyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) doped with 1%, 3%, 5%, and 7% of cerium dioxide nanoparticles (CeO₂ NPs). The As-prepared thin films of (PMMA-PS) incorporated with CeO₂ NPs are deposited on a glass substrate. The transmittance T% (λ) and reflectance R% (λ) of PMMA-PS/CeO₂ NPs thin films are measured at room temperature in the spectral range (250-700) nm. High transmittance of 87% is observed in the low-energy regions. However, transmittance decreases sharply to a vanishing value in the high-energy region. In addition, as the CeO₂ NPs concentration is increased, a red shift of the absorption edge is clearly observed suggesting a considerable decrease in the band gap energy of PMMA-PS/CeO₂ NPs thin film. The optical constants (n and k) and related key optical and optoelectronic parameters of PMMA-PS/Ce NPs thin films are reported and interpreted. Furthermore, Tauc and Urbach models are employed to elucidate optical behavior and calculate the band gaps of the as-synthesized nanocomposite thin films. The optical band gap energy of PMMA-PS thin film is found to be 4.03 eV. Optical band gap engineering is found to be possible upon introducing CeO₂ NPs into PMMA-PS polymeric thin films as demonstrated clearly by the continuous decrease of optical band gap upon increasing CeO₂ content. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis is conducted to identify the major vibrational modes of the nanocomposite. The peak at 541.42 cm^-1 is assigned to Ce-O and indicates the incorporation of CeO₂ NPs into the copolymers matrices. There were drastic changes to the width and intensity of the vibrational bands of PMMA-PS upon addition of CeO₂ NPs. To examine the chemical and thermal stability, thermogravimetric (TGA) thermograms are measured. We found that (PMMA-PVA)/CeO₂ NPs nanocomposite thin films are thermally stable below 110 °C. Therefore, they could be key candidate materials for a wide range of scaled multifunctional smart optical and optoelectronic devices.

Keywords: CeO2 nanoparticles; chemical properties; hybrid thin films; optical properties; polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA); polystyrene (PS); thermal properties.

Grants and funding

282-2019/Jordan University of Science and Technology