Synthesis, structural, dielectric and optical properties of chitosan-MgO nanocomposite

Chitosan (CS) was used as a powerful chelating agent and an excellent template for synthesis of metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs). The CS-MgO nanocomposite film was prepared by adding 10%wt of MgO relative to CS and was characterized by different techniques. From the FTIR, some of the main characteristic peaks of CS were shifted due to the interaction with MgO especially with OH and NH(2)groups. Also, SEM graphs showed a clear change in the morphological surface of CS. Moreover, XRD pattern shows an improvement in the crystallinity due to incorporation of MgO NPs. The dielectric and optical properties of the nanocomposite film were studied. Moreover, the effect of temperature on the dielectric properties of the hybrid film was studied. The absorption and transmittance were measured for the prepared samples by using UV-VIS spectrophotometer. The optical parameters such as refractive index, absorption coefficient and energy band gap for the CS-MgO nanocomposite were calculated and compared with the pure CS film only.