Modification and development in the microstructure of carboxy methyl cellulose-TiO2/Cr2O3 nanocomposites films for optoelectrical applications

Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) has been encapsulated with TiO2 and Cr2O3 nanoparticles via laser ablation route. The prepared films have different nanoparticle concentrations depending on the ablation time. The films were performed via XRD, FTIR, TGA, UV, and AC conductivity. XRD patterns reveal the presence of amorphous characteristics in chitosan (Cs), as indicated by the appearance of a broad hump at 2 theta = 23.49 degrees. However, upon doping Carboxymethyl cellulose with TiO2 and Cr2O3 NPs, this hump vanishes. The FT-IR spectra analysis demonstrates decreasing in the intensities of certain bands when compared to the spectrum of the pure CMC. This observation approved the complexation between CMC and TiO2/Cr2O3 NPs. The TGA results show that CMC-based samples doped with TiO2/Cr2O3 NPs exhibit superior thermal stability compared to the pure CMC sam-ple. Moreover, the direct band gap decreased from 5.71 to 3.44 eV by increasing the concentration of the doping. Furthermore, the indirect band gap was calculated optically and showed a reduce in band gap from 4.79 to 1.55 eV. The inclusion of TiO2/Cr2O3 NPs significantly increased the ionic conductivity of the composite films CMC-TiO2/Cr2O3 NPs, reaching a maximum value of 5.2 10-9 S/c. Electrical analysis obtains that as the concentration of Cr2O3 NPs nanoparticles raised, an enhancement in the conductivity of the resulting CMC/TiO2/Cr2O3 nano -composite films. The results provide strong evidence that the CMC-TiO2/Cr2O3 possess exceptional thermal and electronic properties. This makes them a compelling candidate for use in energy storage applications.