We have carried out systematic studies on Goethite nanoparticles doped (dispersed) HPMC polymer films to quantify the changes in their structural properties, the conductivity, and IR absorbance of films. It is observed that the addition of nanoparticles has significant influence on changing structural parameters and hence enhancing the conductivity of the polymer composite considerably. These polymer composites are water soluble. 1. Introduction Recent works have focused on the designed synthesis and exploration of applications of binary oxide films, such as TiO2–CeO2 [1], TiO2–ZnO [2], TiO2–SiO2, and TiO2–WO3 [3]. These were considered to be effective semiconductor, advanced materials, heterogeneous catalysts, and catalyst supports. The nanoparticles doped polymers have wide applications in devices transducers, gas sensors, and as catalysts [4–6]. This is expected as they are inexpensive. The properties of the materials are found to vary with their constituents. There are several methods of preparation of nanoparticles, which we dope to the polymer matrix and among them hydrothermal approach [7, 8] has great advantages. Nanoparticles doped polymers have created a great interest in the field of research and our work is based on the preparation of a new material to the class of polymer nanocomposites. We have used hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) as the polymer base in this work, which is a water soluble polymer and is widely used in the field of medicine due to its solubility in water and high inertness, possessing a nontoxic nature. It is mainly used in manufacturing of capsules due to its property of controlled drug release [9, 10]. It is easily accepted and has a variety of viscosities and types of substitution, and the necessary doses are easy to formulate [11]. HPMC is a potential biodegradable cellulose derivative that produces films with good oil barrier and excellent mechanical properties and it is tasteless. The addition of nanoparticles to a polymer changes the structural and other properties like conductivity and IR absorbance considerably from its parent polymer. In this paper we report preparation of materials and characterization studies using X-ray, conductivity, and FT-IR techniques. 2. Preparation 2.1. Preparation of Nanoparticles The hydrothermal technique has been the best technique to prepare Goethite (FeO(OH)) particles of desired sizes with homogeneity in composition and high degree crystallinity. Goethite (FeO(OH)) nanoparticles were prepared with 1% to 5% weight of Goethite and were tested for their photodegradation
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