Influence of Copper Nanoparticles Concentration on the Properties of Poly(vinylidene fluoride)/Cu Nanoparticles Nanocomposite Films

In this study, the nanocomposite films of polyvinylidene fluoride/copper nanoparticles were prepared by mixing of copper nanoparticles in a solution of dimethylformamide and polyvinylidene fluoride. The prepared nanocomposites were investigated by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques, showed an obvious α- to β-phase transformation compared to pure PVDF. Scanning electron microscope micrographs showed spherulitic crystal structure of PVDF. The spherulitic morphology of the pure PVDF is maintained for the PVDF nanocomposites; the size of the spherulites decreased by increasing weight fraction of copper nanoparticles. The optical band gap values deduced from the UV–Visible absorption spectra were found to reduce from 4.77 eV in pure PVDF to 3.2 eV after embedding 1 wt% of copper nanoparticles. The surface resistivity values were decreased with increasing copper nanoparticles content. Thermal stability of the nanocomposites was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). TGA curves showed that nanocomposite films have higher resistance to thermal degradation compared to pure PVDF.