Microstructural, Surface Morphological, and Micro-Hardness Analysis and Characterization of Laser Dye Rhodamine (Rh6G) Doped PMMA Polymeric Matrices

Polymer complex samples of laser dye rhodamine (Rh6G) doped polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) with various compositions (PMMA: Rh6G :: 2g : 0.005mg, 2g : 0.05mg, 2g : 0.5mg) and 2g pure PMMA were prepared by the solution cast method. The pure and doped polymeric samples were investigated by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The effect induced by rhodamine (Rh6G) on the strength of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) samples was studied by measuring the surface micro-hardness using the Vickers micro-hardness tester. Significant changes were observed in the Vickers micro-hardness number (Hv) and the structural and morphological behavior, which have been correlated.