Structural investigation and optical characteristics of low-energy hydrogen beam irradiated polyvinyl alcohol/polyaniline composite materials

This work is demonstrate the optical characteristics of PVA/PANI composites using a homemade ion source for applied in optoelectronic devices. A solution casting technique was employed to fabricate the Polyvinyl Alcohol/Polyaniline (PVA/PANI) samples. The PVA/PANI samples are irradiated by hydrogen beam fluence of 5 × 1016, 10 × 1016, and 15 × 1016 ions/cm2, respectively. The structural modifications of the PVA/PANI samples resulting from ion exposure are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The scanning microscope (SEM) is illustrate the morphology changes of the pure and irradiated samples. The optical gap of PVA/PANI was obtained by Tauc’s formula. By enhancing ion dose from 5 × 1016 ions/cm2 to 15 × 1016 ions/cm2, the band gap of the PVA/PANI composite decreased from 2.89 eV to 2.71 eV, and the absorption edge moved of 2.43 eV to 1.45 eV. Furthermore, the number of carbon clusters increased from 57 to 66, while the band tail widened from 2.31 eV to 2.47 eV. In addition, other optical characteristics as the refractive indices and dielectric constant were computed. Moreover, Wemple/Di-Domenico analysis was employed to predict the dispersion measures of both untreated and ion-exposed samples. The results indicated that films exposed to 15 × 1016 ions/cm2 are optimal for optical device applications.