%0 Journal Article
%T Optical Characteristics of Polystyrene Based Solid Polymer Composites: Effect of Metallic Copper Powder
%A Shujahadeen B. Aziz
%A Sarkawt Hussein
%A Ahang M. Hussein
%A Salah R. Saeed
%J International Journal of Metals
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/123657
%X Solid polymer composites (SPCs) were prepared by solution cast technique. The optical properties of polystyrene doped with copper powder were performed by means of UV-Vis technique. The optical constants were calculated by using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The dispersion regions were observed in both absorption and refractive index spectra at lower wavelength. However, a plateau can be observed at high wavelengths. The small extinction coefficient compared to the refractive index reveals the transparency of the composite samples. The refractive index and optical band gap were determined from the reflectance and optical absorption coefficient data, respectively. The nature of electronic transition from valence band to conduction band was determined and the energy band gaps of the solid composite samples were estimated. It was observed that, upon the addition of Cu concentration, the refractive index increased while the energy gaps are decreased. The calculated refractive indexes (low index of refraction) of the samples reveal their availability in waveguide technology. 1. Introduction Recent years have witnessed constant search for high permittivity materials that have wide range of technologically important applications such as microelectronic, embedded passive, and electrostrictive devices. The majority of the electronic components in microelectronic circuits are passive and occupy more than 80% of the printed wired surface area [1]. The dispersion of an electrically conductive phase within an insulating polymer matrix affects the overall performance of the heterogeneous system. It was reported that if the dispersed metallic particle is in sufficient quantity, a conductive or semiconductive composite is formed. The interesting properties of such systems make them technologically important and competitive to other alternative materials due to their cost-effectiveness [2]. Conductive polymer composites are essential for applications referring to electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, radio frequency interference (RFI) shielding, and electrostatic dissipation of charges (ESD). Polymer composites are used as electrical conductive adhesives and circuit elements in microelectronics and have been reported to possess anticorrosive behavior as metal components coatings [3]. Many types of polymer composites have been studied in the pursuit to develop a system with high conductivity. These include epoxy resin matrix with iron particles [2], high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) [4], poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV)-TiO2 [5],
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