Structural, Optical, and Electrical Investigations of Nd2O3-Doped PVA/PVP Polymeric Composites for Electronic and Optoelectronic Applications

Samer H Zyoud; Ali Almoadi; Thekrayat H AlAbdulaal; Mohammed S Alqahtani; Farid A Harraz; Mohammad S Al-Assiri; Ibrahim S Yahia; Heba Y Zahran; Mervat I Mohammed; Mohamed Sh Abdel-Wahab

doi:10.3390/polym15061351

Structural, Optical, and Electrical Investigations of Nd₂O₃-Doped PVA/PVP Polymeric Composites for Electronic and Optoelectronic Applications

Polymers (Basel). 2023 Mar 8;15(6):1351. doi: 10.3390/polym15061351.

Authors

Samer H Zyoud^{1

2

3}, Ali Almoadi^{4

5}, Thekrayat H AlAbdulaal⁵, Mohammed S Alqahtani^{4

6}, Farid A Harraz^{7

8}, Mohammad S Al-Assiri^{7

9}, Ibrahim S Yahia^{3

5

10

11}, Heba Y Zahran^{5

10

11}, Mervat I Mohammed¹¹, Mohamed Sh Abdel-Wahab¹²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mathematics and Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman P.O. Box 346, United Arab Emirates.
² Nonlinear Dynamics Research Center (NDRC), Ajman University, Ajman P.O. Box 346, United Arab Emirates.
³ Center of Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research (CMBHSR), Ajman University, Ajman P.O. Box 346, United Arab Emirates.
⁴ Department of Radiological Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Laboratory of Nano-Smart Materials for Science and Technology (LNSMST), Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ BioImaging Unit, Space Research Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
⁷ Promising Centre for Sensors and Electronic Devices (PCSED), Advanced Materials and Nano-Research Centre, Najran University, P.O. Box 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Department, Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute (CMRDI), P.O. Box 87, Helwan, Cairo 11421, Egypt.
⁹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Arts, Najran University, P.O. Box 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Research Center for Advanced Materials Science (RCAMS), King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia.
¹¹ Nanoscience Laboratory for Environmental and Biomedical Applications (NLEBA), Semiconductor Lab., Metallurgical Lab.1., Department of Physics, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Roxy, Cairo 11757, Egypt.
¹² Materials Science and Nanotechnology Department, Faculty of Postgraduate Studies for Advanced Sciences, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62511, Egypt.

Abstract

In this present work, a PVA/PVP-blend polymer was doped with various concentrations of neodymium oxide (PB-Nd⁺³) composite films using the solution casting technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to investigate the composite structure and proved the semi-crystallinity of the pure PVA/PVP polymeric sample. Furthermore, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis, a chemical-structure tool, illustrated a significant interaction of PB-Nd⁺³ elements in the polymeric blends. The transmittance data reached 88% for the host PVA/PVP blend matrix, while the absorption increased with the high dopant quantities of PB-Nd⁺³. The absorption spectrum fitting (ASF) and Tauc's models optically estimated the direct and indirect energy bandgaps, where the addition of PB-Nd⁺³ concentrations resulted in a drop in the energy bandgap values. A remarkably higher quantity of Urbach energy for the investigated composite films was observed with the increase in the PB-Nd⁺³ contents. Moreover, seven theoretical equations were utilized, in this current research, to indicate the correlation between the refractive index and the energy bandgap. The indirect bandgaps for the proposed composites were evaluated to be in the range of 5.6 eV to 4.82 eV; in addition, the direct energy gaps decreased from 6.09 eV to 5.83 eV as the dopant ratios increased. The nonlinear optical parameters were influenced by adding PB-Nd⁺³, which tended to increase the values. The PB-Nd⁺³ composite films enhanced the optical limiting effects and offered a cut-off laser in the visible region. The real and imaginary parts of the dielectric permittivity of the blend polymer embedded in PB-Nd⁺³ increased in the low-frequency region. The AC conductivity and nonlinear I-V characteristics were augmented with the doping level of PB-Nd⁺³ contents in the blended PVA/PVP polymer. The outstanding findings regarding the structural, electrical, optical, and dielectric performance of the proposed materials show that the new PB-Nd⁺³-doped PVA/PVP composite polymeric films are applicable in optoelectronics, cut-off lasers, and electrical devices.

Keywords: PVA/PVP; XRD/FT-IR; neodymium oxide-doped PVA/PVP composite films; nonlinear I-V curve; nonlinear optical properties.

Abstract

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