Significantly enhanced electroactive β phase crystallization and UV-shielding properties in PVDF nanocomposites flexible films through loading of ATO nanoparticles: Synthesis and formation mechanism

Abstract In this work, we report on the preparation and characterization of a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) film filled with antimony tin oxide nanoparticles (ATO-NPs), films were prepared via a facile solution casting method to investigate the electroactive β-polymorph formation mechanism and the optical properties of the (ATO/PVDF) nanocomposite films. The impact of the ATO loading on the structural and morphological properties of PVDF were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy techniques. Designing nanocomposites with a combination of the advantages of both PVDF and ATO nanofiller leads to a feasible route to a remarkable increase of the electroactive phase enriched PVDF films. The (0.05) ATO/PVDF composite film exhibits a maximum β-phase fraction of 86% compared with other loadings this may be assigned to the presence of interfacial interactions at the interface between NPs surface and CH 2 /CF 2 dipoles of PVDF inducing the electroactive phases. Furthermore, the thermal properties of the composites were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry technique revealed the effect of the ATO loading on the structural and morphological properties of PVDF. Studying the optical properties of the nanocomposite films exhibit a strong absorbance in the entire UV region compared with neat PVDF, which is very appealing for UV blocking properties.