Tuning the structural, optical properties and antibacterial activity of poly(vinyl chloride)/poly(methyl methacrylate)/silver oxide nanocomposites for potential optoelectronic and medical applications

The fabrication of ternary nanocomposites attracts great interest in scientific research worldwide. PVC/PMMA/AgO nanocomposites are prepared by the casting method with various proportions of AgONPs. Analysis of XRD and FTIR spectra exhibited that the structural parameters of PVC/PMMA blend have been affected with increasing nanofiller content. UV–Vis spectra analysis showed that the direct/indirect energy gap are decreased from (5.21/4.92) to (4.86/3.90) eV and the dispersion and oscillation (E_d/E_o) energies are increased from (1.186/4.437) to (73.323/13.638) eV with increasing the content of AgONPs. Linear/nonlinear optical parameters of PVC/PMMA/AgO nanocomposites are enhanced upon increasing AgONPs content. This study also showed that the antibacterial activity of PVC/PMMA/AgO nanocomposites against Gram-positive bacteria (S. aureus, B. subtilis) and Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli) is enhanced. Generally, PVC/PMMA/AgO nanocomposites show promising potential in the field of flexible optoelectronic devices due to the structure-dependent adjustable optical energy gap and in the medical field for their pronounced antibacterial activity.