Designing vanadium pentoxide-carboxymethyl cellulose/polyvinyl alcohol-based bionanocomposite films and study of their structure, topography, mechanical, electrical and optical behavior

In the present work, thin films of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) were prepared by solution casting method and vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) was doped by in situ precipitation to yield CMC/PVA-V2O5 bionanocomposites. The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) techniques and AC/DC conductivity, tensile strength, and microhardness measurements, and photo-luminescence (PL) and UV–Vis spectroscopic studies were conducted. The results of AFM and XRD studies provided information about morphology and crystalline features of the bionanocomposite film, respectively. The FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the presence of functional groups of the constituent polymers in the bionanocomposite and showed that V2O5 was successfully incorporated into CMC/PVA matrix. The AFM analysis of bionanocomposite films provided information about their morphology and roughness parameters. The PL spectroscopy indicated the appearance of blue shift after doping of V2O5 into the biopolymer film. The AC electrical conductivity was measured in the range 500–100,000 Hz and it was found that at room temperature the conductivity increases with frequency. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to look into the possible thermal transitions occurring in the bionanocomposites.