Comparative analysis of the optical and electrical properties of PVA/PVP blended polymer with ZnCo2O4/CdS nanocomposites for optoelectronic and dielectric capacitor applications

Polymer nanocomposite blends were produced using solution casting, hydrothermal and thermolysis techniques. The blends were composed of a polymer blend consisting of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as the organic host matrix with (1−x)ZnCo2O4–xCdS as filler samples. The current study investigated the morphological, structural, optical, and dielectric features of PVP/PVP/(1-x)ZnCo2O4/xCdS blends. The crystallite size and the phases formed in the fillers were obtained using Rietveld method. The structure and morphology of blended samples were studied using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope techniques. The results of the optical properties imply that the linear and nonlinear optical parameters were affected by the amount of CdS in the (1-x)ZnCo2O4/xCdS filler samples. The direct allowed, indirect allowed, direct forbidden and indirect forbidden transitions values were reduced to 5.09, 4.55, 4.67 and 4.12 eV, respectively, as (1-x)ZnCo2O4/xCdS with x = 0.05 was incorporated into the PVA/PVP blend. The nature of electronic transitions in all blends were also studied. The fluorescence intensity, emitted colors and purity of the doped PVA/PVP blend are affected by the amount of CdS in the fillers and the excitation wavelength. The energy density of the host blend was improved as it loaded with fillers contained 5 and 10 % CdS in the frequency range beyond 1 kHz. The relaxation times of all doped blends were diminished except blend contained 25% CdS, the relaxation time rose slightly as compared with the relaxation time of undoped blend. The obtained properties indicates potential utility of the doped blends in photocatalytic, photonic, storage energy and optoelectronic applications.