Optical properties of PVA films with diamond and titania nanoparticles

Polymer nanocomposite materials have attracted increasing attention because of their unique optical properties. Of practical interest is the controllable increase in the refractive index (RI) values of the polymer nanocomposite materials by using nanoparticle inclusions with high refractive index values. This paper presents a study of the optical characteristics of polymer nanocomposites with diamond and titanium dioxide (titania) spherical nanoparticles with different diameters (2 nm and 15 nm) and very close refractive index values -2.50 and 2.42, respectively. The investigated samples are with different concentration of the particles varying from 0 wt% to 3 wt.%. The refractive indices are measured by a laser refractometer at two wavelengths, 532 nm and 632.8 nm. The results obtained show that the RI increases with the increase in the concentration of the inclusions of titania and diamond in the PVA matrix.