Effectively polymer composition controllable optical properties of PVDF/PMMA blend films for advances in flexible device technologies

Abstract

Polymer blends and their matrices-based nanocomposites have been established as potential candidates in the advancement of optoelectronic and microelectronic device technologies because they bear attractive design flexibility and also tunable optical and dielectric properties. In this research, we prepared the poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PVDF/PMMA) blend films with varying constituents concentration (viz. PVDF/PMMA=100/0, 80/20, 60/40, 40/60, 20/80, 0/100 wt/wt%), and these were investigated by employing ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer for their in-detail optical characterization. The absorbance, reflectance, and transmittance spectra of these PVDF/PMMA blend films in the wavelength range from 200 nm to 800 nm were analyzed and considered to determine the values of various optical parameters. Due to significant differences in optical behaviour of the PVDF film and that of the PMMA film, the values of the direct energy band gap, extinction coefficient, refractive index, single oscillator energy, dispersive energy, optical range complex dielectric permittivity, optical conductivity, linear susceptibility, third-order non-linear susceptibility, and non-linear refractive index of the PVDF/PMMA blend films were found appreciably blend composition controllable. The energy bandgap, refractive index, and extinction coefficient of these materials are found in the ranges 5.42 to 4.93 eV, 2.22 to 1.72, and 6.62x10⁴ to 0.64x10⁴ , respectively. The experimental results offer a new paradigm for the use of these materials in the design and development of next-generation flexible optoelectronic and allied devices.