Investigation of Optical properties of nano-sized lead polymeric composites

Marwa Elbishty¹, Fouzia Zaid² , Khadeejah Othman³ , Abdulhamid A. Sghayer⁴

^1,2,3 Physics Department, Faculty of Education, University of Zawia, Libya.

m.elbishty@zu.edu.ly ¹, fouzia_zaid@yahoo.co.uk ², K.othman@zu.edu.ly ³,

⁴Physics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Tripoli. a.sghayer@uot.edu.ly⁴

Abstract:

This study investigates the optical properties of nano – sized lead samples mixed with polymeric materials. The 3mm thickness samples were prepared using different percentage of lead doped with polymeric materials (epoxy-hardener). The optical behavior of the prepared samples was evaluated using UV-Visible spectroscopy over an 250-800nm. The optical characteristics, including absorbance, optical gap energy and refractive index were investigated as a function of PbO nanoparticle concentration. Davis and Mott's theory was used to determine the Eg for both direct and indirect permitted transitions. Using the absorption spectrum fitting approach, the Eg values are also estimated to be 1.9ev for indirect transition (n=2), while it was 1.6ev for direct transition (n=1/2). It was also shown the increases of the refractive index by increasing the percentage of PbO from 1.66 at 10wt% to reach 1.9 at 40wt% of PbO. Moreover, the absorption index decreased by increasing the wavelength. The study of the nanostructures of the samples will be done by using SEM. In order to get information such as phase composition, morphology and spatial sharing of the heavy elements can be obtained. These findings demonstrate that nano-sized PbO is an effective reinforcing filler for tailoring the optical characteristics of epoxy hardener composites, making these materials in promising candidates for applications in optical coatings, radiation shielding, photonic devices, and advanced optoelectronic systems.

Key wards:  epoxy- hardener; polymer; nano-sized; optical; lead oxide.