Optical Properties of Swift Heavy Ion Beam Irradiated Polycarbonate/Polystyrene Composites Films

Polycarbonate/polystyrene composites films were irradiated by 55 MeV Carbon ion beam with fluence ranging from 1 × 10¹¹ to 1 × 10¹³ ions/cm². The polymer composites films were prepared by solution mixing method. The effects of ion beam on structural, optical and surface morphology of PC/PS composites films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Optical Microscope. The XRD pattern shows the average crystallite size, percentage of crystallinity and inter-chain separation, which decreases with increase in ion fluences. UV-vis spectra show that the energy band gap and transmittance decreases while number of carbon atoms increases with fluences. The FT-IR spectra evidenced very small change in cross linking and chain scissoring at high ion fluences, while the optical microscopy shows a color change with ion fluence.