Structural, dielectric, and antimicrobial evaluation of PMMA/CeO ₂ for optoelectronic devices

Abstract

In the current report, we have successfully synthesized nanocomposites of PMMA incorporating different doping of CeO ₂ through a chemical approach. XRD results reflects decent matching for CeO ₂ nanoparticles with 29 nm crystallite size. FTIR spectroscopy demonstrates the characteristic functional groups validating the successful formation of the composite. The optical study of PMMA and the nanocomposites has proven that the optical properties such as band gap, refractive index, optical permittivity, and loss tangent factor are affected by adding CeO ₂ to the PMMA matrix.The peak residing around 420 nm by UV measurements is allocated to occurring electrons photoexcitation from the valence to conduction band inherent in CeO ₂. The dielectric measurements were achieved using broadband dielectric spectroscopy upon a wide span of frequencies (10 ^–1–10 ⁷ Hz) and within temperatures from − 10 to 80 °C with a step of 10 °C. The permittivity decreases by adding CeO ₂ and the dielectric parameters are thermally enhanced, however, the temperature influence is based on CeO ₂ content, the higher the CeO ₂ amount, the higher the influence of temperature. The results of the nanocomposites revealed antibacterial activity counter to gram-positive bacteria strain ( S. aureus, and B. subtilis), and gram-negative bacteria ( E. coli, and K. pneumoniae), yeast ( C. albicans, as well as fungi ( A. niger). Inherently, the change in CeO ₂ concentration from 0.01 to 0.1 wt% delivers maximum influence against gram-negative bacteria. These PMMA CeO ₂-doped composites are beneficial for optoelectronic areas and devices.