The Impact of Gamma Radiation on the Structural, Optical, and Dielectric Properties of Polyacrylamide/Barium Titanate Nanocomposites

In the present study, polyacrylamide (PAM) was used as a matrix material for preparing nanocomposite samples filled with different weight fractions (1, 3, 5, 7, and 15%) of barium titanate (BaTiO3) by casting method. The PAM/7% BaTiO3 has been irradiated with gamma radiation at a dose of 200 Gy in order to investigate its impact on the structure as well as its optical and dielectric properties. The results show that the BaTiO3 nanoparticles are well incorporated inside the PAM matrix and the crystallite size of BaTiO3 has been decreased upon filling inside the PAM matrix as confirmed by the analysis of Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), respectively. The prepared films show direct forbidden optical transition. Moreover, filling PAM with 7% BaTiO nanoparticles has increased the dielectric permittivity from 1.07 to 2.44 (at 100 kHz) with a slight increase in the loss factor from 0.015 to 0.020. In the other side, gamma radiation has decreased the crystallite size in relative to the un-irradiated sample with increased dielectric permittivity (2.89) and a slight decrease in the loss factor (0.019) at 100 kHz.