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Enhanced optical properties of graphite nanoflakes/polydimethylsiloxane nanocomposites induced by low-dose gamma irradiation

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Abstract

Gamma irradiation has emerged as a promising technique for tailoring the microstructures and, by extension, properties of nanoparticles embedded polymer composites. Despite extensive efforts to elucidate the gamma ray-induced changes in nanocomposites, there is still a notable lack of studies on the effects of low-doses on the properties of polymer nanocomposites. This leads to a quantitative investigation about the impact of low-dose gamma irradiation on the optical properties of graphite nanoflake (GnF)-reinforced polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanocomposites (GnF/PDMS nanocomposites). A series of GnF/PDMS nanocomposites with different GnF concentrations ranging from 1 to 10 wt% was prepared, followed by gamma irradiation at specific doses ranging from 0.0 to 5.0 kGy. The analyses showed that even low-dose gamma irradiation causes microstructural changes in the nanocomposites, resulting in a proportional relation between their light absorption properties and gamma ray dose. In detail, the GnF/PDMS nanocomposites showed a gradual increase in light absorption, peaking at gamma irradiation dose of 5 kGy. For example, 4 wt% GnF/PDMS nanocomposite under the influence of 5 kGy gamma irradiation shows an average light absorption value of 96.3%, whereas nonirradiated sample at the same composites exhibits absorption value of 93.2%. The increase in absorption is attributed to the combined effects arising from microstructural alterations in the nanocomposites, including the improved dispersion of GnF and the restoration of carbon rings under gamma irradiation. Notably, the optical energy band gap of the nanocomposite samples reveals a decreasing trend with increasing gamma irradiation. Specifically, band gap for 4 wt% GnF/PDMS at 5 kGy radiation is 2.76 eV against 4.96 eV for non-irradiated pure PDMS. This study sheds light on the fundamentals of enhancing the light absorption characteristics of GnF/PDMS nanocomposites under low-dose gamma irradiation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (2023R1A2C1005933). W.L. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (EEC-2034824, CBET-2340208). S.C. and W.L. acknowledges support through Patents2Products Fellowship, Office of Innovation and Commercialization, University of Hawaii System.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Suman Chhetri, Anh Tuan Nguyen & Woochul Lee

  2. Bioinspired Engineering Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea

    Sehwan Song & Sang-Hee Yoon

  3. Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Nicolas Gaillard

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  1. Suman Chhetri
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Contributions

S.C. involved in methodology, data curation, investigation, formal analysis, validation, visualization, writing (original draft). A.T.N. involved in data curation, formal analysis, writing (review & editing). S.S. involved in methodology, formal analysis. N.G. involved in data curation, formal analysis, writing (review and editing). S.-H.Y. involved in data curation, formal analysis, validation, writing (review and editing). W.L. involved in conceptualization, supervision, writing (review and editing), project administration, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Sang-Hee Yoon or Woochul Lee.

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Chhetri, S., Nguyen, A.T., Song, S. et al. Enhanced optical properties of graphite nanoflakes/polydimethylsiloxane nanocomposites induced by low-dose gamma irradiation. J Mater Sci 59, 14354–14366 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-024-10027-6

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