Enhancement of the optical properties of poly vinyl alcohol by doping with silver nanoparticles

Poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) incorporated with different weight percent of Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were prepared. The enhancement factors for each band in the Raman spectra were calculated and the degree of enhancement were found to be increased as the percent of Ag NPs increases up to 0.3\%, and thereafter it decreases. Some bands were red shifted while others were blue shifted. The overtones FTIR bands and photoacoustic spectra were recorded and show the same behavior as those bands. The X-ray diffraction pattern and Raman and photoacoustic spectra showed that PVA has a high degree of crystallinity. The UV-vis spectra of the same samples were red shifted and increase in their intensities up to 0.3\% Ag NPs, thereafter the band intensities of the peak corresponding to Ag NPs were diminished. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.