Structural, morphological, dielectric and tensile properties of BaTiO3-doped PVA/PVP polymer blend nanocomposites

BaTiO3 (BT)-doped polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) blend nanocomposites are prepared by a simple solution casting method. The PVA/PVP/BT polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) are characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), UV-Vis spectroscopy and universal testing machine. The dielectric behaviour of PVA/PVP/BT PNCs is studied from 50 to 5 MHz at a temperature ranging from 35 to 155 degrees C. The C-O, C=O stretching peaks obtained from FTIR results confirm strong miscibility between PVA/PVP and Ti-O bands. The peaks in XRD data disclose the crystalline nature of the filler in the PNCs. From SEM results, good miscibility is found between the polymers and the filler. AFM study reveals increased roughness in the PNCs with an increase in BT%. The absorption spectrum is noticed to have shifted towards higher wavelengths with BT concentration. The dielectric constant (epsilon ') is found to be maximum for 5 wt% of BT in the PNCs that also exhibited maximum toughness and Young's modulus.