Synthesis of electrospun ZnO/CuO nanocomposite fibers and their dielectric and non-linear optic studies

The blend of sol–gel processing and electrospinning technique, yields composite nanofibers of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/zinc acetate/copper acetate. Calcining these fibers resulted in nanocomposite fibers of ZnO/CuO with diameters of 50–100 nm which was revealed by the scanning electron microscope images. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) confirmed the presence of the ZnO/CuO composite. The synthesized materials have been also characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet–visible–near-infrared spectroscopy (UV–vis–NIR) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). From the UV spectra, the band gap of the nanocomposite was calculated to be 3.1 eV. Dielectric properties of these samples at different temperatures were studied with respect to frequency. The second harmonic generation efficiency of the material was found to be 11.1 times that of potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate (KDP).

Research highlights▶ The PVA/Zn acetate/Cu acetate nanocomposite fibers were synthesized for the first time by using the sol–gel and electro spinning techniques. ▶ The nanocomposite was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis and scanning electron microscopy. ▶ The band gap energy of the nanocomposite was calculated from UV spectroscopy. ▶ The dielectric and non-linear optical properties of the nanocomposite were studied for the first time.