Enhancing Structural, Optical, and Thermal Properties of PVA/PEO by Incorporating CrBr2

Films of the PVA/PEO polymer blend incorporated by CrBr2 were prepared using the casting method. Several characterization tools were used to study the PVA/PEO CrBr2 samples. Adding CrBr2 to the PVA/PEO significantly affects the structure, optical and thermal behaviour of the samples. The X-ray diffraction peaks suggest that the pure PEO/PVA blend is semi-crystalline. Still, the presence of CrBr2 reduces the intensity of these peaks, indicating interactions between the polymer blend and filler. The appearance of the main peaks of CrBr2 confirms that the complexation between the PVA/PEO and CrBr2 leads to decreased crystallinity and increased amorphous phase. The UV-Visible data indicate that adding CrBr2 reduces the energy band gap transitions due to the presence of defects and increasing disorder in the samples, creating localized energy states that can lead to energy level overlaps and a reduction of the energy gap. The DSC thermograms show that adding CrBr2 results in higher glass transition and melting temperatures, indicating improved thermal properties and enhanced thermal stability due to intermolecular interactions between CrBr2 and the PVA/PEO blend. The Coats-Redfern method was used to estimate Delta S*, Delta H*, and Delta G* in TGA measurements. These thermal parameters suggest that the presence of CrBr2 affects the thermal degradation mechanism. The values of Delta S*, Delta H*, and Delta G* decrease irregularly with increasing CrBr2, indicating that adding CrBr2 alters the thermal degradation mechanism of the PVA/PEO blend. The dielectric constant and the dielectric loss of the samples decrease with frequency No relaxation peaks observed in the dielectric curves indicate non-Debye behavior.

Automated summary

The structure, optical, and thermal behavior of PVA/PEO CrBr2 samples were studied, and it was found that adding CrBr2 significantly affects these properties, including reducing crystallinity, increasing amorphous phase, decreasing energy band gap transitions, improving thermal stability, and altering the thermal degradation mechanism.