Investigation on the optical and transport properties of PVA/Ag incorporated ZnO nanocomposites for optoelectronic and electronic device application.

In this paper, optical and transport properties of Polyvinyl Alcohol/Silver incorporated Zinc Oxide (PVA/Ag–ZnO) nanocomposites of varying Ag–ZnO nanoparticles content prepared by solution casting method are studied to explore their multifunctional applications. The nanocomposites are characterized using X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscope, Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, UV–Visible spectroscopy and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy. The UV–visible spectra showed zero transmittance in the UV region with increasing Ag–ZnO nanoparticles content in the PVA matrix suggesting that the nanocomposites could be used as a potential UV shielding material. The optical band gap energy decreases from 5.77 to 1.54 eV with increasing Ag–ZnO nanoparticles content in the PVA matrix. Frequency- and temperature-dependent dielectric measurement of the samples reveals maximum dielectric constant at PVA/15 wt% Ag–ZnO nanocomposite. Dielectric loss results showed a lossless behaviour at higher frequencies (< 0.2), suggesting that the prepared samples are suitable for use in high-frequency applications. The AC conductivity studies reveal that electrical conduction mechanism in the nanocomposites is governed by the correlated barrier hopping mechanism. Activation energy calculation indicates the involvement of two different types of conduction mechanism in the samples. The Nyquist plot for all the samples is fitted using the equivalent circuit model. The studied results show that the PVA/Ag–ZnO nanocomposites can serve as potential candidates for optoelectronic and electronic device application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]