Abstract
Flexible polymer nanocomposite composed of organic methylcellulose (MC) and semiconducting titanium dioxide (TiO2) films were successfully prepared. The energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) recorded the structure characteristics of the films, proving that MC/TiO2 nanocomposite were successfully synthesized. The EDX showed that this composite was composed of (28.55% C, 50.90% O, and 20.55% Ti), which displayed the chemical composition of MC/TiO2. Moreover, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) shows the TiO2 nanoparticles are loaded homogenously in the nanocomposite films. With increasing the TiO2, the FTIR intensity of most peaks gradually decreased which may be attributed to that titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) were formed on the methylcellulose (MC). The UV spectrophotometer records the data of absorption (A) for the MC and MC/TiO2 films between 200nm and 1100nm at the ambient temperature. Using Tauc’s relation, the linear/nonlinear optical characteristics of MC and MC/TiO2 films were computed. By mixing MC with 2%, 4%, and 6% TiO2, the Urbach energy of the MC is enhanced from 1.77eV to 1.85, 2.02, and 2.34eV, correspondingly, while the TiO2 reduced the energy gap of MC from 5.17eV to 3.59, 3.52, or 3.43eV. Moreover, the carbon cluster increased from 44 for MC to 92, 95, and 101 for MC mixed by 2%, 4%, and 6% TiO2. This study found the MC/TiO2 hybrid films can potentially be used as optical materials for flexible electronic devices.
