XRD and UV–Vis studies of cellulose acetate film blended with different concentrations of nano-metal oxide

Abstract

Abstract Molybdenum Trioxide nanoparticle (MoO 3 -NPs) was introduced to Cellulose acetate (CA) biopolymer with different concentration using casting process by dispersed MoO 3 -NPs [0.0, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 wt%]. Molecular structure of samples has been studied using XRD and UV–Vis. the data shown by X-ray results indicated the amorphous nature of the pure polymer. Some peaks are appeared as a result of the addition of MoO 3 -NPs which indicate that samples were partially crystallized. The crystallite size of nano-metal oxide was calculated for blended samples by Size–Strain Plot method which was found to increase with increasing the concentration of MoO 3 . UV–Vis results indicate that there exist two indirect energy band gaps; Onset band gap which observed to decreases from 1.3 eV for pure polymer to 0.78 eV for polymer blended with 1.0 wt% MoO 3 -NPs and HOMO–LOMO band gap which observed to decrease from 3.23 eV for pure polymer to 2.89 eV for polymer blended with 1.0 wt% MoO 3 -NPs. This indicate that the addition of nano-metal oxide improve the optical conduction of CA. Urbach energy was observed to increase with increasing MoO 3 -NPs from 0.27 eV for pure CA to 0.32 eV for 1.0 wt% MoO 3 -NPs concentration which may be occurred due to the creation localized states at the band gap as a result of the addition of MoO 3 -Nps.