Pure and gamma-irradiated silver-doped polyvinyl alcohol ‘PVA’ samples are fabricated, and their optical constants are experimentally determined through the measurement of the reflectance and the transmittance. Using the thin-film model, an iterative method is used to solve for the real and imaginary parts of the refractive index, in the near-infrared (NIR) region. The retrieved refractive index values are verified through a comparison between the theoretical calculations and the practical measurements of the transmittance. The refractive index shows a big increase in the absorption loss of the polymer, when compared to pure PVA. This qualifies the fabricated films for new applications such as optical plasmonic circuits, optical absorbers, solar energy harvesting and sensors in the NIR region. More insight on the functional groups that exist in the fabricated specimens is given by Fourier transform spectroscopy in the mid-infrared range from 400 to 4000 cm⁻¹.

References

1. 1)
  - 18. Abdul-Kader, A.M., Zaki, M.F., Radwan, R.M., et al: ‘Influence of gamma irradiation on physical and chemical properties of makrofol (NTD) material’, Radiat. Phys. Chem., 2018, 151, pp. 12–18 (doi: 10.1016/j.radphyschem.2018.05.010).
2. 2)
  - 26. Workman, J., Weyer, L.: ‘Practical guide and spectral atlas for interpretive near-infrared spectroscopy’ (CRC Press, NW, USA, 2012).
3. 3)
  - 33. Morimoto, T., Yanal, H., Nagao, M.: ‘Infrared spectra of ammonia adsorbed on zinc oxide’, J. Phys. Chem., 1976, 80, (5), pp. 471–475 (doi: 10.1021/j100546a010).
4. 4)
  - 6. Shoji, T., Tsuchizawa, T., Watanabe, T., et al: ‘Spot-size converter for low-loss coupling between 0.3-μm-square Si wire waveguides and single-mode fibers’. The 15th Annual Meeting of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, 2003, vol. 1, pp. 289–290.
5. 5)
  - 28. Siddhartha, A.S., Kapil, D., Raghuvanshi, S.K., et al: ‘Effect of gamma radiation on the structural and optical properties of polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) polymer’, Radiat. Phys. Chem., 2012, 81, (4), pp. 458–462 (doi: 10.1016/j.radphyschem.2011.12.023).
6. 6)
  - 15. Temgire, M.K., Joshi, S.S.: ‘Optical and structural studies of silver nanoparticles’, Radiat. Phys. Chem., 2004, 71, pp. 1039–1044 (doi: 10.1016/j.radphyschem.2003.10.016).
7. 7)
  - 16. Ghanipour, M., Dorranian, D.: ‘Effect of Ag-nanoparticles doped in polyvinyl alcohol on the structural and optical properties of PVA films’, J. Nanomater., 2013, 2013, pp. 1–10 (doi: 10.1155/2013/897043).
8. 8)
  - 20. Jacob, W., Keudell, A.V., Schwarz-Selinger, T.: ‘Infrared analysis of thin films: amorphous, hydrogenated carbon on silicon’, Brazilian J. Phys., 2001, 31, (1), pp. 109–109 (doi: 10.1590/S0103-97332001000100019).
9. 9)
  - 36. Kariduraganavar, M.Y., Kulkarni, S.S., Kittur, A.A.: ‘Pervaporation separation of water-acetic acid mixtures through poly(vinyl alcohol)-silicone based hybrid membranes’, J. Memb. Sci., 2005, 246, (1), pp. 83–93 (doi: 10.1016/j.memsci.2004.09.001).
10. 10)
  - 39. Kim, D.S., Park, H.B., Rhim, J.W., et al: ‘Preparation and characterization of cross-linked PVA/SiO2 hybrid membranes containing sulfonic acid groups for direct methanol fuel cell applications’, J. Memb. Sci., 2004, 240, (1-2), pp. 37–48 (doi: 10.1016/j.memsci.2004.04.010).
11. 11)
  - 17. Sandler, S.R., Karo, W.: ‘Organic functional group preparations’ (Academic Press, San Diego, USA, 1989).
12. 12)
  - 29. Nocun, M., Kwasny, S., ‘Preparation and photocatalytic activity of vanadium/silver doped TiO2 thin films obtained by sol-gel method’, Opt. Appl., 2012, 42, (2), pp. 323–336.
13. 13)
  - 32. He, H.-Y., He, Z., Shen, Q.: ‘Efficient hydrogen evolution catalytic activity of graphene/metallic MoS2 nanosheet heterostructures synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal process’, Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, 2018, 43, (48), pp. 21835–21843 (doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.10.023).
14. 14)
  - 23. Ananth, A.N., Umapathy, S., Sophia, J., et al: ‘On the optical and thermal properties of in situ/ex situ reduced Ag NP's/PVA composites and its role as a simple SPR-based protein sensor’, Appl. Nanosci., 2011, 1, pp. 87–96 (doi: 10.1007/s13204-011-0010-7).
15. 15)
  - 12. Abdoua, S.M., El-Zahed, H., Elnahasa, H.H., et al: ‘Optical and electrical characterization of gamma irradiated low density polyethylene/paraffin wax blend’, Optik, 2018, 164, pp. 254–262 (doi: 10.1016/j.ijleo.2018.03.014).
16. 16)
  - 35. Chauhan, N., Singh, V., Kumar, S., et al: ‘Synthesis of nitrogen- and cobalt-doped rod-like mesoporous ZnO nanostructures to study their photocatalytic activity’, J. Sol-Gel Sci. Technol., 2019, 91, pp. 567–577 (doi: 10.1007/s10971-019-05059-3).
17. 17)
  - 30. Stuart, B.H.: ‘Infrared spectroscopy: fundamentals and applications’ (John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex, England, 2004).
18. 18)
  - 24. Butkus, J., Edwards, A.P., Quacquarelli, F.P., et al: ‘Light emission enhancement using randomly distributed plasmonic nanoparticle arrays’, Opt. Mater. (Amst)., 2014, 36, (9), pp. 1502–1505 (doi: 10.1016/j.optmat.2014.04.010).
19. 19)
  - 10. Mujahid, M., Singh, P., Srivastava, D.S., et al: ‘Study of chain scission versus cross linking in Mev ion-irradiated polycarbonate using dielectric constant measurements and UV spectroscopy’, Radiat. Meas., 2004, 38, pp. 197–203 (doi: 10.1016/j.radmeas.2003.09.004).
20. 20)
  - 34. Kiss, J., Kukovecz, A., Konya, Z.: ‘Beyond nanoparticles: the role of sub-nanosized metal species in heterogeneous catalysis’, Catal. Lett., 2019, 149, pp. 1441–1454.
21. 21)
  - 13. Mahendia, S., Tomar, A.K., Chahal, R.P., et al: ‘Optical and structural properties of poly(vinyl alcohol) films embedded with citrate-stabilized gold nanoparticles’, J. Phys. D, 2011, 44, (20), pp. 1–8 (doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/44/20/205105).
22. 22)
  - 9. Dargaville, T.R., George, G.A., Hill, D.J.T., et al: ‘High energy radiation grafting of fluoropolymers’, Prog. Polym. Sci., 2003, 28, (9), pp. 1355–1376 (doi: 10.1016/S0079-6700(03)00047-9).
23. 23)
  - 14. Yen, C.C., Chang, T.C., Kakinoki, H.: ‘Studies on the preparation and properties of conductive polymer. I. Novel method to prepare metalized plastic from metal chelate of poly(vinyl alcohol)’, J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 1990, 40, pp. 53–66 (doi: 10.1002/app.1990.070400106).
24. 24)
  - 38. Wu, D., Jiang, Y., Yuan, Y., et al: ‘ZnO-ZnS heterostructures with enhanced optical and photocatalytic properties’, J. Nanopart. Res., 2011, 13, (7), pp. 2875–2886 (doi: 10.1007/s11051-010-0176-z).
25. 25)
  - 3. Melikyan, A., Alloatti, L., Muslija, A., et al: ‘High-speed plasmonic phase modulators’, Nat. Photonics, 2014, 8, (3), pp. 229–233 (doi: 10.1038/nphoton.2014.9).
26. 26)
  - 27. Magda, A.E., Khaled, M.Y., Ali, A.M.Y.: ‘Effect of gamma irradiation on the optical properties of epoxy resin thin films’, Optik, 2019, 183, pp. 962–970 (doi: 10.1016/j.ijleo.2018.12.182).
27. 27)
  - 1. Clemens, W.: ‘Polymer electronics’, In Technology Guide: Principles – Applications – Trends (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg2009), pp. 84–87.
28. 28)
  - 4. Sasaki, K., Nagamura, T.: ‘Ultrafast all-optical switch using complex refractive index changes of thin films containing photochromic dye’, Appl. Phys. Lett., 1997, 71, (4), pp. 434–436 (doi: 10.1063/1.119571).
29. 29)
  - 21. www.jascoinc.com.
30. 30)
  - 7. Pustelny, T., Maciak, E., Opilski, Z., et al: ‘Optical interferometric structures for application in gas sensors’, Opt. Appl., 2007, 37, (1–2), pp. 187–194.
31. 31)
  - 19. Abdel Moez, A., Aly, S.S., Elshaer, Y.H.: ‘Effect of gamma radiation on low density polyethylene (LDPE) films: optical, dielectric and FTIR studies’, Spectrochim. Acta A Mol. Biomol. Spectrosc., 2012, 93, pp. 203–207 (doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2012.02.031).
32. 32)
  - 37. Kim, Y.Y., Walsh, D.: ‘Metal sulfide nanoparticles synthesized via enzyme treatment of biopolymer stabilized nanosuspensionsf’, Nanoscale, 2010, 2, (2), pp. 240–247 (doi: 10.1039/B9NR00194H).
33. 33)
  - 5. Zhang, Z., Liu, D., De Felipe, D., et al: ‘Polymer embedded silicon nitride thermally tunable Bragg grating filters’, Appl. Phys. Lett., 2013, 102, (18), pp. 1–4..
34. 34)
  - 31. Ushasree, U.V., Ahmad, A.: ‘FTIR spectroscopic analysis on human hair’, Int. J. Innov. Res. Sci. Eng. Technol., 2017, 6, (5), pp. 9327–9332.
35. 35)
  - 25. Guirguis, O.W., Moselhey, M.T.H.: ‘Optical study of poly (vinyl alcohol)/hydroxypropyl methylcellulose blends’, J. Mater. Sci., 2011, 46, (17), pp. 5775–5789 (doi: 10.1007/s10853-011-5533-5).
36. 36)
  - 11. Mohammadian-Kohol, M., Asgari, M., Shakur, H.R.: ‘A detailed investigation of the gamma-ray radiation effects on the optical properties of polyvinyl butyral film’, Optik, 2016, 127, (19), pp. 7459–7468 (doi: 10.1016/j.ijleo.2016.05.076).
37. 37)
  - 8. Clough, R.L.: ‘High-energy radiation and polymers: a review of commercial processes and emerging applications’, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B Beam Interact. Mater. Atoms, 2001, 185, (1-4), pp. 8–33 (doi: 10.1016/S0168-583X(01)00966-1).
38. 38)
  - 2. Gad, M., Yevick, D., Jessop, P.E.: ‘Tunable polymer/silicon over insulator ring resonators’, Opt. Eng., 2008, 47, (12), p. 124601 (doi: 10.1117/1.3050355).
39. 39)
  - 22. Aziz, S.B.: ‘Modifying poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) from insulator to small-bandgap polymer: A novel approach for organic solar cells and optoelectronic devices’, J. Electron. Mater., 2016, 45, (1), pp. 736–745 (doi: 10.1007/s11664-015-4191-9).

Optical constants of gamma-irradiated silver-doped PVA in the near-infrared range

References

Related content