Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Nanostructural Characterization of Luminescent Polyvinyl Alcohol / Graphene Quantum Dots Nanocomposite Films

Dhanumalayan Elumalai
,
B. Rodríguez
ORCID logo ,
G. Kovtun
,
P. Hidalgo
ORCID logo ,
B. Méndez
ORCID logo ,
S. Kalleemula
,
G. M. Joshi
,
M. T. Cuberes
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 7 November 2023 / Approved: 8 November 2023 / Online: 8 November 2023 (07:37:55 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Elumalai, D.; Rodríguez, B.; Kovtun, G.; Hidalgo, P.; Méndez, B.; Kaleemulla, S.; Joshi, G.M.; Cuberes, M.T. Nanostructural Characterization of Luminescent Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Quantum Dots Nanocomposite Films. Nanomaterials 2024, 14, 5. Elumalai, D.; Rodríguez, B.; Kovtun, G.; Hidalgo, P.; Méndez, B.; Kaleemulla, S.; Joshi, G.M.; Cuberes, M.T. Nanostructural Characterization of Luminescent Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Quantum Dots Nanocomposite Films. Nanomaterials 2024, 14, 5.

Abstract

Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA)/ Graphene Quantum Dots (GQDs) polymer nanocomposite films have been prepared, and the relationship between their structural, thermal and nanoscale morphologi-cal properties, and their photoluminescent response, has been investigated. Although according to X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) the incorporation of GQDs does not significantly affect the percentage crystallinity of the PVA matrix, for a range of added GQD concentrations, Atomic Force Micros-copy (AFM) showed the formation of islands with apparent crystalline morphology on the surface of the PVA/GQD films, with GQD presumably acting as a nucleating agent for island growth. The incorporation of GQD also led to the formation of characteristic surface pores with increased stiffness and frictional contrast, according to Ultrasonic Force Microscopy (UFM) and Frictional Force Microscopy (FFM) data. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the films were found to de-pend both on the amount of GQD incorporated and on the film morphology. For GQD loads > 1,2wt%, a GQD-related band was observed at ~ 1650 cm-1 in FT-IR, along with an increase in the PL band at lower energy. For a load of ~2wt% GQD, the surface morphology was characterized by extended cluster aggregates with lower stiffness and friction than the surrounding matrix, and the PL signal decreased.

Keywords

Polyvinyl Alcohol; Graphene Quantum Dots; Atomic Force Microscopy; Ultrasonic Force Mi-croscopy; Friction Force Microscopy; Photoluminescence; X-Ray Difraction; Infrared Spectroscopy; Thermogravimetry; Differential Thermal Analysis

Subject

Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanotechnology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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