Enhancing the Optical Properties of Starch/ZnO Nanocomposites using Graphene Oxide

Badry, Rania; Hegazy, Maroof A.; Yahia, Ibrahim S.; Elhaes, Hanan; Zahran, Heba Y.; Abdel-Salam, Ahmed I.; Matar, Hanan; Ibrahim, Medhat A.

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2021.104153.4811

	Enhancing the Optical Properties of Starch/ZnO Nanocomposites using Graphene Oxide
Egyptian Journal of Chemistry
Article 33, Volume 65, Issue 7, July 2022, Page 335-342 PDF (442.34 K)
Document Type: Original Article
DOI: 10.21608/ejchem.2021.104153.4811
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Authors
Rania Badry¹; Maroof A. Hegazy²; Ibrahim S. Yahia³^{, 4}; Hanan Elhaes¹; Heba Y. Zahran³^{, 5}; Ahmed I. Abdel-Salam⁶; Hanan Matar⁶; Medhat A. Ibrahim⁶^{, 7}
¹Physics Department, Faculty of Women for Arts, Science and Education, Ain Shams University, 11757 Cairo, Egypt;
²National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG), 11421 Helwan, Cairo, Egypt
³Research Center for Advanced Materials Science (RCAMS), King Khalid University, Abha 61413, P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia.
⁴Nanoscience Laboratory for Environmental and Bio-Medical Applications (NLEBA), Semiconductor Lab., Metallurgical Lab.1., Physics Department, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Roxy, 11757 Cairo, Egypt.
⁵5Nanoscience Laboratory for Environmental and Bio-Medical Applications (NLEBA), Semiconductor Lab., Metallurgical Lab.1., Physics Department, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Roxy, 11757 Cairo, Egypt.
⁶Nanotechnology Research Centre (NTRC), The British University in Egypt (BUE), Suez Desert Road, El-Sherouk City, Cairo, 11837, Egypt.
⁷Molecular Spectroscopy and Modeling Unit, Spectroscopy Department, National Research Centre, 33 El-Bohouth St., 12622, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
Abstract
Starch is an eco-friendly polymer for various applications, from medical applications to optoelectronic once due to its biocompatibility. Polymer nanocomposites based on starch, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and graphene oxide (GO) are synthesized using a casting technique. Optical properties were studied by a UV-vis spectrophotometer, and the nanocomposite molecular structure was determined using a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. The starch absorption edge was shifted to the region of lower energy. It was found that starch has two absorption edges and hence two optical band gaps. The direct and indirect optical band gap values were determined for pure starch, starch/ZnO and starch/GO nanocomposites. The incorporation of 6wt.% of ZnO NPs reduces the indirect optical band gap from 4.77 to 2.88 eV. Meanwhile, the incorporation of 2wt.% of GO reduced the band gap to 2.15 eV.
Keywords
Starch; Zinc oxide; GO and UV-Vis Spectrophotometer


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