Structural and electrical properties of irradiated flexible ZnO/PVA nanocomposite films

In this work, the structure and dielectric properties of flexible films composed of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) mixed with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer are irradiated with different fluence of argon ion beam (8 × 1017, 16 × 1017 and 24 × 1017 ions/cm2). The zinc oxide (ZnO)/PVA composite films were synthesised using the solvent casting preparation method and then characterised using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). The XRD showed that ZnO/PVA composite films were successfully fabricated, and the FTIR peaks indicated that ZnONPs had a chemical interaction with PVA polymer chains. Furthermore, the AC conductivity, dielectric permittivity, electric modulus and energy density efficiency of the un-irradiated and irradiated films were determined using an inductance, capacitance and resistance meter in the frequency range 102–106 Hz. The dielectric constant, ε′, of the composite film increased from 1.38 for un-irradiated ZnO/PVA to 1.88 after being irradiated by 24 × 1017 ions/cm−2, and the conductivity is improved from 7.8 × 10−5 to 10.6 × 10−5 S/cm. The obtained results demonstrated that the dielectric characteristics of the irradiated ZnO/PVA composite films were enhanced; hence, will support these materials in current electronic applications.