Silver nanoparticles incorporated PVC films: evaluation of structural, thermal, dielectric and catalytic properties

Abstract In this work, silver nanoparticle – polyvinylchloride (SNC-PVC) composites were synthesized by loading 2.5% to 10.0% silver ions to PVC using simple solution casting technique. Material properties including dielectric, thermal stability were discussed in some detail. Incorporation of silver nanoparticles (SNPs) in the PVC matrix was confirmed by UV-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). FE-SEM confirms the shape of the SNPs are roughly spherical with average size of the SNPs in the range of 60 - 80 nm. The thermal degradation studies were analysed via sensitive graphical Broido’s method using Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The resulting SNC-PVC films, especially with 10% silver loading showed improved catalytic performance during the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) in the presence of aqueous sodium borohydride with apparent rate constant 1.956 × 10-3 sec-1 at ambient temperature.摘要 本研究采用简易溶液浇铸法，将2.5%至10.0%的银离子负载于聚氯乙烯（Polyvinylchloride, PVC）基体中，合成了银纳米颗粒-聚氯乙烯（Silver Nanoparticle – Polyvinylchloride, SNC-PVC）复合材料。本研究对该复合材料的介电性能、热稳定性等材料特性展开了较为详尽的讨论。通过紫外-可见分光光度法（UV-Vis）、X射线衍射（XRD）、能量色散X射线光谱（EDX）与场发射扫描电子显微镜（FE-SEM），证实了银纳米颗粒（Silver Nanoparticles, SNPs）已成功掺入PVC基体中。场发射扫描电子显微镜结果显示，银纳米颗粒大致呈球形，平均粒径介于60~80 nm之间。本研究通过热重分析（TGA）结合灵敏的布罗伊多图解法，对复合材料的热降解行为进行了分析。所制备的SNC-PVC复合膜（尤其是银负载量为10%的样品）表现出优异的催化性能：在室温下以硼氢化钠水溶液为还原剂时，该催化剂可将对硝基苯酚（4-Nitrophenol, 4-NP）还原为对氨基苯酚（4-Aminophenol, 4-AP），表观速率常数达1.956×10^-3 s^-1。