Spectroscopic studies on the effect of doping with CoBr2 and MgCl2 on some physical properties of polyvinylalcohol films

Filled and unfilled polyvinylalcohol (PVA) films were prepared by the casting technique. Films of equal amounts with various concentrations of two fillers (CoBr₂ and MgCl₂) were prepared. Spectroscopic, structural and some physical properties of these films were studied with different techniques. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) revealed that the syndiotacticity structure of the PVA samples causes dense molecular packing in the crystal and also stronger intermolecular hydrogen bonds, which are responsible for the disappearance of the molecular motion. X-ray diffraction (XRD) scans evidenced the presence of some semicrystalline structure of PVA films. The optical absorption spectra suggested the presence of an optical gap (E_g), which depends on filler concentration for all the filling levels. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) suggests that the segmental mobility of an amorphous pure PVA increases as a result of the addition of mixed fillers, becoming less-rigid segments. This indicates that the mixed fillers act as plasticizers.