Optical and dielectric properties of ion beam irradiated Ag/polymethyl methacrylate nanocomposites

Changes in the dielectric, optical, structural and thermal properties of PMMA/silver nanocomposites of different concentrations of silver nanoparticles (5%, 10%, 15%) due to swift heavy ion irradiation were studied by means of impedance gain phase analyzer, UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. Samples were irradiated with 120 MeV Si-ions at fluences of 1 x 10(11), 1 x 10(12) ions/cm2. Dependence of dielectric properties on frequency, ion beam fluence and filler concentration was studied. The results revealed the enhancement in dielectric properties after dopping nanoparticles and also upon irradiation. Optical properties like band gap was estimated for pure polymer and nanocomposite films from their optical absorption spectra in the wavelength region 200-800 nm. It was found that the band gap value shifted to lower energy (from 4.58 eV to 3.21 eV) on doping with silver nanoparticles. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis revealed a decrease in the glass transition temperature upon irradiation, which may be attributed to scissioning of polymer chain due to ion beam irradiation which is also confirmed with XRD analysis.