Influence of Cr2O3 nanoparticles on the structural, optical, thermal and electrical properties of PEO/CMC nanocomposites

In the present paper, different concentrations of chromium oxide (Cr2O3) nanoparticles (≤ 0.6 wt%) were incorporated within PEO/CMC polymer blend to produce nanocomposite films using the casting technique. X-ray diffraction was performed on PEO/CMC-Cr2O3 nanocomposites. The main X-ray peaks of Cr2O3 were observed and defined as cubic structure and orthorhombic shape. The average particle size was calculated by Scherer’s equation in the range between 50 and 60 nm. A decrease of some IR bands after the addition of Cr2O3 nanoparticles was found, which was attributed to the interactions between PEO/CMC and Cr2O3. The effect of Cr2O3 nanoparticles on optical properties such as absorbance and optical energy gap (Eg) was characterized using UV–Vis spectroscopy. The Eg was reduced after the addition of Cr2O3 nanoparticles. The AC conductivity (σac), dielectric constant (ε′), dielectric loss (ε′′\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\varepsilon }^{{^{\prime}}{^{\prime}}}$$\end{document}) and the dielectric modulus (M′andM′′\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\text{M}}^{{^{\prime}}}\text{and }{\text{M}}^{{^{\prime}}{^{\prime}}}$$\end{document}) were calculated at the frequency range of 0.1 Hz -7 GHz. The increase in direct conductivity (σdc) indicates the resulting free charge density or charge mobility. The calculated values of both ε′ and ε′′\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\varepsilon }^{{^{\prime}}{^{\prime}}}$$\end{document} were decreased with increasing the frequency. The addition of Cr2O3 nanoparticles causes the formation of a charge-transfer complex. The Cole–Cole plot between (M′andM′′\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\text{M}}^{{^{\prime}}}\text{ and }{\text{M}}^{{^{\prime}}{^{\prime}}}$$\end{document}) shows a semi-circular shape which discuses according to a non‐Debye method.