Optical, optoelectronic, structural, and chemical characterizations of (PEO-PVA)/MWCNT nanocomposite films

Nanocomposite films were fabricated from polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) incorporated with variant contents of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) deposited on the glass substrates. FTIR and XRD techniques determined the chemical and structural characteristics of (PEO-PVA)/MWCNTs nanocomposite films. The optical properties, including refractive index, extinction coefficient, and dielectric functions, were comprehended via UV-Vis spectroscopy's transmittance and reflectance spectra. Classical and quantum models, including Al-Bataineh, Urbach, Spitzer-Fan, and Drude models, are employed to determine optical and opto-electronic characteristics. The optical bandgap energy of the PEO-PVA film was found to be 4.032 eV. Intro-ducing MWCNTs to PEO-PVA films leads to a decrease in bandgap energy. The effective medium models (EMMs) described the diluted MWCNTs in the host PEO-PVA matrix. Our samples obey the Maxwell-Garnett model indicating a considerable distance between the MWCNTs in the polymer matrix with predicted possible in-teractions between the nanotubes and the host polymer chain. In addition, electrical conductivity increased as increasing MWCNT in PEO-PVA films.