Optical, dielectric and electrical properties of PVA doped with Sn nanoparticles

Films of pure and doped polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with different concentrations of Sn nanoparticles (<= 100 nm) were prepared using casting technique. The effect of Sn addition on micro-structural, optical, electrical and dielectric properties of PVA was investigated. Microstructure of Sn/PVA nanocomposite films was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Dielectric properties and ac conductivity measurements were carried out at room temperature over a wide range of frequencies ranging from 50 Hz to 5 MHz. AC conductivity was found to increase with frequency. Besides, addition of Sn nanoparticles to PVA leads to a change in conductivities of the films. Coulomb blockade effect was found to dominate at certain concentrations of Sn which may be used to explain the obtained results. The dielectric properties of the Sn/PVA films were also investigated and results were discussed in correlation with the relevant models. The frequency dependence of the imaginary part of complex electric modulus for the Sn/PVA composites shows a loss peak attributed to interfacial polarization at a certain frequency. Optical energy gap of Sn/PVA films was determined and found to decrease for Sn concentrations up to 20% due to the interaction between the Sn nanoparticles and the host polymeric network leading to the creation of new molecular dipoles. For higher Sn concentrations, the optical energy gap starts to increase which may be resulting from structural changes leading to passivation of localized states near the band edges and hence widening of the energy gap.