Structural mechanical and electrical property evaluation of nano cadmium oxide polyvinyl alcohol composites

In this work, the effect of nano cadmium oxide material on the physico-mechanical and electrical properties of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films was studied. A series of PVA/CdO nanocomposites with varying amounts of cadmium oxide (CdO) viz. 0, 0.5, 1.0 2.0 and 4.0 wt% have been prepared by solution casting method. The prepared polymer nanocomposites were analysed for XRD, SEM, FTIR and UV-vis spectra. Further, the tensile strength and elongation of these polymer nanocomposites were measured and compared with those of the neat polymer systems. UV-vis spectra showed that the absorbance increases with the increasing amount of nano CdO. The nano CdO particles are not agglomerated in the PVA matrix as observed from SEM images. The influence of frequency on the dielectric properties was studied at room temperature. The dielectric properties provide the information about the dielectric relaxation and possible interaction between the nano material and polymer matrix which can be exploited for microwave applications.