Exploring the physical properties of PVA/PEG polymeric material upon doping with nano gadolinium oxide

Nano gadolinium oxide doped polyvinyl alcohol/polyethylene glycol blend (PVA/PEG) was prepared by sol–gel and casting methods. Rietveld refinement method was used for structural and microstructural investigation. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) techniques were applied to study the formation of nano Gd2O3 doped PVA/PEG-blend. Differential scanning calorimetry technique (DSC) was utilized to investigate the glass transition, the melting and degradation temperatures of undoped and doped PVA/PEG blends. The melting temperature was increased slightly while the degradation temperature was reduced upon doping with nano Gd2O3. The behavior of the absorbance and other different optical parameters were studied in detail using UV-spectrophotometer. A variation in the optical bandgap of the PVA/PEG blend was observed while the values of refractive index and extinction coefficient were enhanced as the amount of Gd2O3 increased in the blend. The influence of nano Gd2O3 doping on the different dispersion parameters was examined using Wemple and DiDomenico approximation model. The nature of electronic transitions of different samples was examined by comparing the optical band gap obtained from Tauc’s relation and dielectric loss parameter.