Modification of the structure, optical properties, TGA, and DSC of CMC/polyacrylamide films by CoFe QDs

Abstract This study employed auto-combustion and solution casting techniques for preparing CoFe QDs and CoFe/carboxymethyl cellulose/polyacrylamide nanocomposite films, respectively. HR-TEM and XRD analyses revealed that CoFe is a polycrystalline material with an fcc structure composed of small semi-spherical particles of size < 10 nm. XRD and ATR/FTIR showed the formation of semicrystalline films, where CoFe makes interactions and complexations with the blend functional groups. SEM and EDX analyses showed that the blend is homogeneous with a uniform distribution of CoFe QDs. The blend film showed UV–vis-NIR transmittance up to 71% but decreased with increasing CoFe content. In addition, the indirect (and direct) band gap decreased from 4.8 (5.2) eV to 4.0 eV at 6.0 wt% CoFe QDs. Investigating the thermal properties indicated that CoFe QDs can speed up the blend decomposition through multiple reaction stages. It also confirmed the strong interaction between CoFe and blend chains and decreased the activation energy from 447.9 to 416.8 kJ/mol.