Study of ZnO nanoparticles based hybrid nanocomposites for optoelectronic applications

We report on the effect of nanoparticle concentration on the performance of hybrid polymer/zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films. We used scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, UV-Vis absorption, and photoluminescence spectroscopies to study the morphology, structure, and optical behavior of the different nanocomposites. Topographical analysis has shown that ZnO nanoparticles (n-ZnO) affect the morphology of thin film and indicated that the roughness of the samples was found to increase with the concentration of n-ZnO until 50 wt. %, then decreased for higher concentration. A clear contribution of nanoparticles in the nanocomposites absorption has been demonstrated in UV-Vis spectra with maintaining the absorption features of the polymer. Further investigations have revealed a decrease in band gap energy (Eg) with increasing nanoparticles amount in the polymer showing size variation depending on n-ZnO. The structures have shown overlapping emission bands from both ZnO and the polymer. The origins of this emission and its evolution with nanoparticles concentration were also discussed.