Modification of optical properties of PC-PBT/Cr2O3 and PC-PBT/CdS nanocomposites by gamma irradiation

Nanocomposite (NCP) films of polycarbonate-polybutylene terephthalate (PC-PBT) blend as a host material to Cr2 O3 and CdS nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated by both thermolysis and casting techniques. Samples from the PC-PBT/Cr2 O3 and PC-PBT/CdS NCPs were irradiated using different doses (20–110 kGy) of γ radiation. The induced modifications in the optical properties of the γ irradiated NCPs have been studied as a function of γ dose using UV Vis spectroscopy and CIE color difference method. Optical dielectric loss and Tauc's model were used to estimate the optical band gaps of the NCP films and to identify the types of electronic transition. The value of optical band gap energy of PC-PBT/Cr2 O3 NCP was reduced from 3.23 to 3.06 upon γ irradiation up to 110 kGy, while it decreased from 4.26 to 4.14 eV for PC-PBT/CdS NCP, indicating the growth of disordered phase in both NCPs. This was accompanied by a rise in the refractive index for both the PC-PBT/Cr2 O3 and PC-PBT/CdS NCP films, leading to an enhancement in their isotropic nature. The Cr2 O3 NPs were found to be more effective in changing the band gap energy and refractive index due to the presence of excess oxygen atoms that help with the oxygen atoms of the carbonyl group in increasing the chance of covalent bonds formation between the NPs and the PC-PBT blend. Moreover, the color intensity, ΔE has been computed; results show that both the two synthesized NCPs have a response to color alteration by γ irradiation, but the PC-PBT/Cr2 O3 has a more response since the values of ΔE achieved a significant color difference >5 which is an acceptable match in commercial reproduction on printing presses. According to the resulting enhancement in the optical characteristics of the developed NCPs, they can be a suitable candidate as activate materials in optoelectronic devices, or shielding sheets for solar cells.