Investigation the structural and surface characteristics of irradiated flexible polymeric nanocomposites films

This study is to investigate the surface and structural characteristics of the pure and irradiated novel PEO/NiO composite by subjecting the films to argon ions with different ion beam fluencies. The structural characteristics were studied by the EDX and FTIR techniques, while the surface was investigated by SEM technique. The FTIR showed a notable decrease in the peak intensity for the bombarded composite, due to the functional groups with hydrophilic characteristics and the occurrence of chain scission processes. The PEO/NiO composite demonstrates a consistent structure without any nanoparticle clusters, as depicted in the SEM image of PEO/NiO. Moreover, the electrical conductivity for the pure and the irradiated samples were determined. Exposing the composite PEO/NiO to a fluence of 15×1016 ions.cm-2, increasing the conductivity from 7.5×10–8 S/cm to 8.4×10–7 S/cm. By increasing ion fluence from 5×1016 to 15×1016 ions.cm-2. The contact angle is decreased from 81.15o to 72.22o for water, while is decreased from 74.32o to 62.20o for diiodomethane. Moreover, the surface wettability and the adhesion force were determined from the data of the contact angle. The work of adhesion of water increases from 84.37 to 94.16 mJ/m2 and for dioodomethane from 64.52 to 74.49 mJ/m2 , respectively, by increasing ion fluence from 5×1016 to 15×1016 ions.cm-2. This suggests that, in comparison to a unirradiated surface, the increase in 𝑊𝑊𝑎𝑎 is the result of surface cleanliness following radiationThe results of this study show the opportunities for utilizing these irradiated materials in the fields of coating and printing applications.