Optical properties of transparent PMMA-PS/ZnO NPs polymeric nanocomposite films: UV-Shielding applications

ZnO Nanoparticles (NPs) with a particle size less than 50 nm were prepared using the hydrothermal technique from zinc acetate dehydrates (Zn (CH3CO2)(2)center dot 2H(2)O) and NaOH in the presence of ethanol. PMMA-PS/ZnO NPs solution was prepared by blending ZnO NPs with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)-Polystyrene (PS) with a molar ratio of 80% and 20% using solution mixing at concentrations of 2.5%, 5% and 10%. The dip-coating technique was used to get thin films of 300 nmthickness that are highly transparent and could be used for UV shielding. UV-vis spectrophotometer measurements show that the transmittance for PMMA-PS/ZnO thin films has strong absorption in UV region (lambda 300 nm) and high values of transmittance in the visible region. The transmittance of PMMA-PS lies in the range (60-68)% in the visible region. We found that the transmittance values increased gradually upon introducing the ZnO NPs in the films and exhibit a maximum value of 85% for PMMA-PS/10% NPs. This striking finding clearly indicates that the optical properties of the fabricated doped polymeric thin films are greatly improved byte incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles as dopants. Furthermore, we characterize the structure and the morphology of the obtained doped polymers using EDAX mapping and SEM micrographs. Our results indicate that Zn atoms have been distributed uniformly in the structure. As-prepared Transparent PMMA-PS/ZnO Polymeric Nanocomposite Films are of great quality and could be used for several important optical applications.