Synthesis, structure, and optical properties of Fe2O3:PVA/PVP/PEG polymeric nanocomposite sheets for low-cost optical limiters under laser and solar visible lights
摘要
The current study suggests using the PVA/PVP/PEG polymeric blend as a pure medium and iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles as a filler. A simple, effective, and inexpensive chemical growth, sol–gel auto-combustion approach was utilized to produce Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Then, the inexpensive and environmentally friendly solution casting method was employed to synthesize various concentrations of Fe2O3:PVA/PVP/PEG nanocomposites. The XRD technique has proven the semi-crystalline structural behavior of the investigated Fe2O3:(PVA/PVP/PEG) composite sheets. The SEM/EDX images were used to analyze the surface morphology of the Fe2O3 NPs and all prepared polymeric sheets, as well as to calculate the average grain size, which was 110.5 nm for the Fe2O3 NPs. The FT-IR technique with a range of 4000 to 400 cm−1 was also used to analyze the chemical and structural properties of the polymeric nanocomposite sheets. UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy was functioning to optically measure the linear/nonlinear properties of the proposed composite sheets over a wavelength range (190—2500 nm). In this research work, the direct and indirect optical bandgaps of the PVA/PVP/PEG polymer were found to be 5.40 and 4.92 eV, respectively. These energy bandgaps decreased to 4.69 and 2.15 eV as the Fe2O3 weight increased in the host matrix. A Z-scan system with three excitation sources—a He–Ne laser at 632.8 nm, a green diode laser at 532 nm, and a blue laser at 450 nm—was also operated to optically study the limiting effects of the prepared polymeric sheets. The power of lasers and visible light was significantly reduced by incorporating a high concentration of Fe2O3 doping into the polymeric sheets. To conclude, the synthesized Fe2O3-doped PVA/PVP/PEG nanocomposites worked well and showed great promise in optical, optoelectronic, and laser filter devices.