Refractive Index Tailoring of Poly(methylmethacrylate) Thin Films by Embedding Silver Nanoparticles

2012 ◽  
Vol 585 ◽  
pp. 134-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisha Goyal ◽  
Jyoti Rozra ◽  
Isha Saini ◽  
Pawan K. Sharma ◽  
Annu Sharma

Nanocomposite films of Poly (methylmethacrylate) with different concentration of silver nanoparticles were prepared by ex-situ method. Firstly, silver nanoparticles were obtained by reducing the aqueous solution of silver nitrate with sodium borohydride then Ag-PMMA films were prepared by mixing colloidal solution of silver nanoparticles with solution of polymer. Thin solid films were structurally characterized using UV-VIS spectroscopy and TEM. The appearance of surface plasmon resonance peak, characteristic of silver nanoparticles at 420 nm in UV-VIS absorption spectra of Ag-PMMA films confirms the formation of Ag-PMMA nanocomposite. TEM showed Ag nanoparticles of average size 8 nm embedded in PMMA matrix. Analysis of absorption and reflection data indicates towards the reduction in optical band gap and increase in refractive index of the resulting nanocomposite. The synthesized Ag-PMMA nanocomposite has been found to be more conducting than PMMA as ascertained using I-V studies. The decrease in band gap and increase in conductivity can be correlated due to the formation of localized electronic states in PMMA matrix due to insertion of Ag nanoparticles. The PMMA thin films with dispersed silver nanoparticles may be useful for nanophotonic devices.

2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 20402
Author(s):  
Kaoutar Benthami ◽  
Mai ME. Barakat ◽  
Samir A. Nouh

Nanocomposite (NCP) films of polycarbonate-polybutylene terephthalate (PC-PBT) blend as a host material to Cr2O3 and CdS nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated by both thermolysis and casting techniques. Samples from the PC-PBT/Cr2O3 and PC-PBT/CdS NCPs were irradiated using different doses (20–110 kGy) of γ radiation. The induced modifications in the optical properties of the γ irradiated NCPs have been studied as a function of γ dose using UV Vis spectroscopy and CIE color difference method. Optical dielectric loss and Tauc's model were used to estimate the optical band gaps of the NCP films and to identify the types of electronic transition. The value of optical band gap energy of PC-PBT/Cr2O3 NCP was reduced from 3.23 to 3.06 upon γ irradiation up to 110 kGy, while it decreased from 4.26 to 4.14 eV for PC-PBT/CdS NCP, indicating the growth of disordered phase in both NCPs. This was accompanied by a rise in the refractive index for both the PC-PBT/Cr2O3 and PC-PBT/CdS NCP films, leading to an enhancement in their isotropic nature. The Cr2O3 NPs were found to be more effective in changing the band gap energy and refractive index due to the presence of excess oxygen atoms that help with the oxygen atoms of the carbonyl group in increasing the chance of covalent bonds formation between the NPs and the PC-PBT blend. Moreover, the color intensity, ΔE has been computed; results show that both the two synthesized NCPs have a response to color alteration by γ irradiation, but the PC-PBT/Cr2O3 has a more response since the values of ΔE achieved a significant color difference >5 which is an acceptable match in commercial reproduction on printing presses. According to the resulting enhancement in the optical characteristics of the developed NCPs, they can be a suitable candidate as activate materials in optoelectronic devices, or shielding sheets for solar cells.


Coatings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 484
Author(s):  
Matthias Schuster ◽  
Dominik Stapf ◽  
Tobias Osterrieder ◽  
Vincent Barthel ◽  
Peter J. Wellmann

Copper indium gallium sulfo-selenide (CIGS) based solar cells show the highest conversion efficiencies among all thin-film photovoltaic competition. However, the absorber material manufacturing is in most cases dependent on vacuum-technology like sputtering and evaporation, and the use of toxic and environmentally harmful substances like H2Se. In this work, the goal to fabricate dense, coarse grained CuInSe2 (CISe) thin-films with vacuum-free processing based on nanoparticle (NP) precursors was achieved. Bimetallic copper-indium, elemental selenium and binary selenide (Cu2−xSe and In2Se3) NPs were synthesized by wet-chemical methods and dispersed in nontoxic solvents. Layer-stacks from these inks were printed on molybdenum coated float-glass-substrates via doctor-blading. During the temperature treatment, a face-to-face technique and mechanically applied pressure were used to transform the precursor-stacks into dense CuInSe2 films. By combining liquid phase sintering and pressure sintering, and using a seeding layer later on, issues like high porosity, oxidation, or selenium- and indium-depletion were overcome. There was no need for external Se atmosphere or H2Se gas, as all of the Se was directly in the precursor and could not leave the face-to-face sandwich. All thin-films were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV/vis spectroscopy. Dense CISe layers with a thickness of about 2–3 µm and low band gap energies of 0.93–0.97 eV were formed in this work, which show potential to be used as a solar cell absorber.


2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chitra Das ◽  
Jahanara Begum ◽  
Tahmina Begum ◽  
Shamima Choudhury

Effect of thickness on the optical and electrical properties of gallium arsenide (GaAs) thin films were studied. The films of different thicknesses were prepared by vacuum evaporation method (~10-4 Pa) on glass substrates at a substrate temperature of 323 K. The film thickness was measured in situ by a frequency shift of quartz crystal. The thicknesses were 250, 300 and 500 nm. Absorption spectrum of this thin film had been recorded using UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer in the photon wavelength range of 300 - 2500 nm. The values of some important optical parameters of the studied films (absorption coefficient, optical band gap energy and refractive index; extinction co-efficient and real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant) were determined using these spectra. Transmittance peak was observed in the visible region of the solar spectrum. Here transmittance showed better result when thicknesses were being increased. The optical band gap energy was decreased by the increase of thickness. The refractive index increased by increasing thickness while extinction co-efficient and real and imaginary part of dielectric constant decreased. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbas.v37i1.15684 Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, Vol. 37, No. 1, 83-91, 2013


2013 ◽  
Vol 756 ◽  
pp. 99-105
Author(s):  
Rajasingam Ratnamalar ◽  
Mustapha Mariatti ◽  
Zulkifli Ahmad ◽  
Sharif Zein Sharif Hussein

This work reports a simple chemical reduction route for the preparation of uniformed Ag nanoparticles whereby a fine control over the sizes of the Ag nanoparticles was studied by varying the concentrations of the reducing agents used. In characterization, UV-Vis spectroscopy showed the changes in optical properties of the Ag nanoparticles with regards to their sizes, where as the XRD patterns of the synthesized Ag nanoparticles confirmed the distinct peaks approximately at 2θ = 38.1°, 44.3°, 64.4°, 77.4°, and 81.5 representing Bragg’s reflections from (111), (200), (220), (311), and (222) planes of the face centred cubic lattice phase. This route of synthesis is feasible to produce Ag nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 30-45 nm.


Author(s):  
Dinesh Pathak ◽  
Sanjay Kumar ◽  
Sonali Andotra ◽  
Jibin Thomas ◽  
Navneet Kaur ◽  
...  

In this study, we have investigated new tailored organic semiconductors materials for the optoelectronic application, such as organic solar cells. The carbon-based organic semiconductor material has promising advantages in organic thin-film form. Moreover, due to its low cost, organic thin-films are suitable and cheaper than inorganic thin-film. The band gap of organic semiconductors materials can be tuned and mostly lies between 2.0eV to 4eV and the optical absorption edge of organic semiconductors typically lies in between 1.7eV to 3eV. They can be easily tailored by modifying the carbon chain and legends and looks promising for engineering the band gap to harness solar spectrum. In this work, with new tailored organic semiconductors the solution route is explored which is low cost processing method. (Anthracen-9-yl) methylene naphthalene-1-amine, 4-(anthracen-9-ylmethyleneamino)-1,5dimethyl-2-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-3-one and N-(anthracen-9-ylmethyl)-3,4-dimethoxyaniline thin-films are processed by spin coating method with changing concentration such as 0.05 wt% and 0.08 wt%. Thin films of Organic semiconductors were prepared on glass substrate and annealed at 55°C. The structural and optical behaviour of (Anthracen-9-yl) methylene naphthalene-1-amine, 4-(anthracen-9-ylmethyleneamino)-1,5dimethyl-2-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-3-one and N-(anthracen-9-ylmethyl)-3,4-dimethoxyaniline organic semiconductors thin films is studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-Visible Spectroscopy technique. The XRD data of synthesized sample suggests the Nano crystallinity of the Organic layers. The SEM micrographs shows the dense packing when we increase the wt% 0.05 to 0.08. Analysis of the optical absorption measurements found that the engineered band gap of synthesized thin films are 2.18eV, 2.35eV, 2.36eV, 2.52eV and 2.65eV which suggest suitability for applications of Optoelectronic devices such as solar cell. Such light weight, eco-friendly and disposable new carbon based materials seems to have potential to replace other traditional hazardous heavy materials for future eco-friendly flat fast electronics. Keywords: Thin-film, solar cell, tailored organic semiconductors, XRD, SEM, UV-Vis spectroscopy.


2012 ◽  
Vol 488-489 ◽  
pp. 103-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manisha Tyagi ◽  
Monika Tomar ◽  
Vinay Gupta

The influence of substrate temperature on the UV-Visible-near-IR optical properties, namely the band gap, the Urbach energy and the refractive index of NiO thin films deposited by RF sputtering has been investigated. The optical band gap of thin films showed the blue-shift in the transmission spectra with increase in the substrate temperature which is related to variation in carrier concentration of the deposited films. Urbach energy (EU) values indicate that the films deposited at 400 oC substrate temperature show least structural disorder. The refractive index of the films is found to decrease continuously with increase in the substrate temperature at all photon energies in the visible and near-IR region, and is attributed to the decreasing packing density of the films. Introduction


2012 ◽  
Vol 710 ◽  
pp. 739-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anup Kumar ◽  
Pawan Heera ◽  
P. B Baraman ◽  
Raman Sharma

The optical constants, like absorption coefficient (α), optical band gap (Eg) and refractive index (n), in Se80.5Bi1.5Te18-yAgy (y= 0, 1.0 and1.5) thin films are calculated using well known Swanepoel’s method in the spectral range of 600-2000 nm. The optical band gap has been estimated by using Tauc’s extrapolation method and is found to increase with increase in Ag content. The present results shows that the large value of nonlinear refractive index and good transparency of these thin films will make them a very promising materials for optical integrated circuits in the optical communication systems.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manish Kumar ◽  
Krishna Kumar Parashar ◽  
Sushil Kumar Tandi ◽  
Tanuj Kumar ◽  
D. C. Agarwal ◽  
...  

Ag:TiO2nanocomposite films have been synthesized by sol-gel method followed by electron beam physical vapour deposition. Targets for this deposition were prepared by a hydraulic press using a powder containing Ag and TiO2prepared by sol-gel technique. Microstructure, surface, and plasmonic properties of nanocomposite films were studied using glancing angle X-ray diffractometer, atomic force microscopy, field emission secondary electron microscopy, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Microstructural study reveals that Ag nanoparticles are embedded in TiO2matrix consisting of mixed phases of anatase and rutile. Size estimation using Scherrer formula reveals that average crystallite size of Ag nanoparticles is 23 nm. Surface morphological studies indicate that deposited films are uniform and intact to the substrate and have very low value of root mean square roughness. Optical studies exhibit a surface plasmon resonance induced absorption band in visible region, which is the characteristic feature of Ag nanoparticles. The intensity of this absorption band is found to increase with the increase in deposition time. Multiple peaks observed in absorption band were explained using the concepts of extended Mie scattering. Preliminary experiments also suggested that these nanocomposite films exhibit promising photocatalytic properties, which can be used for water treatment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-87
Author(s):  
Govindarajan Kathiravan ◽  
Kosuru Rekha Yamini ◽  
Kalyanaraman Rajagopal ◽  
Sambandam Anandan ◽  
Kwang Jin Kim ◽  
...  

Green biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles utilizing plant extracts is a simple, cost effective system of generating nanoparticles in an ecofriendly environment. In the present study, biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles was carried out using different parts of Madagascar periwinkle plant extracts. The production of the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was detected visually by change in color of the reaction mixture from yellow to reddish brown in a 8 h treatment at 37 °C. Further, the AgNPs were analyzed by various standard characterization techniques such UV-Vis spectroscopy, Electron Microscopy (TEM and SEM), FT-IR, and GC-MS analysis. The UV-Visible spectrum showed the plasmon resonance peak for AgNPs at 435 nm, indicating the formation of silver nanoparticles. FTIR analysis showed a good interaction between the plant extract and NPs. The morphology of the NPs varied in shape has observed through TEM with the particle size less than 10 nm. The phytoformulated nanoparticles were found to be well dispersed in solution and stable due to capping molecules present in the reaction mixture. The chromatographic analysis (GC-MS) displayed a prominent fragmentation pattern especially at the higher molecular weight in the range of 280 to 271. Angiogenesis is an important physiological process that plays a crucial role in several pathological conditions (tumor growth and metastasis). The green synthesized AgNPs were assessed for their angiogenic inhibition properties using zebrafish embryos as a model system. The biogenic AgNPs treatment at the dose of 100 μl and 150 μl showed significant anti-angiogenesis (inhibitory effect on angiogenesis), which represents more effectiveness in controlling the vessel formation during pathological conditions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 616-618 ◽  
pp. 1773-1777
Author(s):  
Xi Lian Sun ◽  
Hong Tao Cao

In depositing nitrogen doped tungsten oxide thin films by using reactive dc pulsed magnetron sputtering process, nitrous oxide gas (N2O) was employed instead of nitrogen (N2) as the nitrogen dopant source. The nitrogen doping effect on the structural and optical properties of WO3 thin films was investigated by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The thickness, refractive index and optical band gap energy of these films have been determined by analyzing the SE spectra using parameterized dispersion model. Morphological images reveal that the films are characterized by a hybrid structure comprising nanoparticles embeded in amorphous matrix and open channels between the agglomerated nanoparticles. Increasing nitrogen doping concentration is found to decrease the optical band gap energy and the refractive index. The reduced band gaps are associated with the N 2p orbital in the N-doped tungsten oxide films.


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