Radiation-Induced Synthesis of Copper/Poly(vinyl alcohol) Nanocomposites and Their Catalytic Activity

Copper/poly(vinyl alcohol) (Cu/PVA) nanocomposites were synthesized using gamma radiation-induced method and characterized by various analytical techniques. UV-vis absorption spectra showed that the surface plasmon resonance bands of the Cu nanoparticles around 580 nm were redshifted with increasing both irradiation dose and Cu2+ ion concentration The FTIR spectrum provides sufficient evidences for the involvement of PVA in stabilizing the Cu nanoparticles. The X-ray diffraction patterns show the formation of the Cu nanoparticles in a face cubic structure with different sizes as a function of either irradiation doses or Cu2+ ion concentrations. The size of the as-prepared Cu nanoparticles ranged from 13.9 to around 19 nm. On the other hand, the transmission electron microscopy showed that the obtained Cu nanoparticles were monodispersed and had uniform particle size distribution. The rate of the catalytic degradation for a methyl orange dye was found to increase with increasing amount of the Cu nanoparticles content, which could be attributed to higher dispersity and small size of the nanoparticles. Also, the conductivity of PVA increases with incorporation of Cu nanoparticles into PVA matrix.