Fabrication and Characterization of Polyvalent Metals/Oxidized Polyvinyl Alcohol Hybrid Films with Improved Proton Conductivity and Optical Performances

In the present work, conductive and optically tunable polyvalent metals chloride (Cu + , Co 2+ , Al 3+ )- loaded oxidized polyvinyl alcohol ( OPVA) hybrid films are fabricated via the solution casting approach. The aluminum chloride /OPVA hybrids displayed better electrical and optical absorption properties than cuprous and cobalt chlorides. The proton conductivity is observed as 4.5 mS/cm for OPVA, 44.4 mS/cm for CuCl/OPVA film, 62.8 mS/cm for CoCl 2 /OPVA film, and 96.0 mS/cm for AlCl 3 /OPVA film at 90 °C; hence, the proton conductivity performance of the hybrid films is dependent on the ionic radii of the incorporated cations. Interestingly, the optical absorbance of the AlCl 3 /OPVA manifests a flat optical absorption band in the wavelength range of 340–490 nm. The maximum absorption bands of CuCl/OPVA and CoCl 2 /OPVA films shifted toward the blue shift region with a narrow absorption band positioned at around 340 nm. Therefore, the incorporation of doped cations improves the performance of OPVA film for different optoelectronics applications.