Structural, dielectric, and antimicrobial evaluation of PMMA/CeO2 for optoelectronic devices

Ahmed M Bakr; Abdelfattah Darwish; A A Azab; Mohamed E El Awady; Ahmed A Hamed; Amir Elzwawy

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-52840-8

Structural, dielectric, and antimicrobial evaluation of PMMA/CeO₂ for optoelectronic devices

Sci Rep. 2024 Jan 31;14(1):2548. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-52840-8.

Authors

Ahmed M Bakr¹, Abdelfattah Darwish², A A Azab³, Mohamed E El Awady⁴, Ahmed A Hamed⁵, Amir Elzwawy⁶

Affiliations

¹ Spectroscopy Department, Physics Research Institute, National Research Centre (NRC), 33 El-Bohouth St., Dokki, Giza, 12622, Egypt.
² Microwave Physics and Dielectrics Department, Physics Research Institute, National Research Centre (NRC), 33 El-Bohouth St., Dokki, Giza, 12622, Egypt.
³ Solid State Physics Department, Physics Research Institute, National Research Centre (NRC), 33 El-Bohouth St., Dokki, Giza, 12622, Egypt.
⁴ Microbial Biotechnology Department, National Research Centre (NRC), 33 El-Bohouth St., Dokki, Giza, 12622, Egypt.
⁵ Microbial Chemistry Department, National Research Centre (NRC), 33 El Bohouth St., Dokki, Giza, 12622, Egypt.
⁶ Ceramics Department, Advanced Materials Technology and Mineral Resources Research Institute, National Research Centre (NRC), 33 El Bohouth St., Dokki, Giza, 12622, Egypt. elzwawy@gmail.com.

PMID: 38291193
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-52840-8

Abstract

In the current report, we have successfully synthesized nanocomposites of PMMA incorporating different doping of CeO₂ through a chemical approach. XRD results reflects decent matching for CeO₂ nanoparticles with 29 nm crystallite size. FTIR spectroscopy demonstrates the characteristic functional groups validating the successful formation of the composite. The optical study of PMMA and the nanocomposites has proven that the optical properties such as band gap, refractive index, optical permittivity, and loss tangent factor are affected by adding CeO₂ to the PMMA matrix.The peak residing around 420 nm by UV measurements is allocated to occurring electrons photoexcitation from the valence to conduction band inherent in CeO₂. The dielectric measurements were achieved using broadband dielectric spectroscopy upon a wide span of frequencies (10^-1-10⁷ Hz) and within temperatures from - 10 to 80 °C with a step of 10 °C. The permittivity decreases by adding CeO₂ and the dielectric parameters are thermally enhanced, however, the temperature influence is based on CeO₂ content, the higher the CeO₂ amount, the higher the influence of temperature. The results of the nanocomposites revealed antibacterial activity counter to gram-positive bacteria strain (S. aureus, and B. subtilis), and gram-negative bacteria (E. coli, and K. pneumoniae), yeast (C. albicans, as well as fungi (A. niger). Inherently, the change in CeO₂ concentration from 0.01 to 0.1 wt% delivers maximum influence against gram-negative bacteria. These PMMA CeO₂-doped composites are beneficial for optoelectronic areas and devices.