Enhancement of spectroscopic, thermal, electrical and morphological properties of polyethylene oxide/carboxymethyl cellulose blends: Combined FT-IR/DFT

Different ratios between polyethylene oxide (PEO) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) blends were prepared through the solution casting technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dielectric spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the blends. The XRD results confirmed the semicrystalline nature of PEO and amorphous nature of CMC, respectively. The intensity of XRD was changed with varying ratios in the blends. The FT-IR spectra of PEO/CMC blends exhibited all characteristic vibrational spectral bands with variations in their intensities depicting interaction attributed to hydrogen bond in the polymers. Density Function Theory (DFT) was utilized to study the theoretical interaction process for PEO/CMC and indicated that the prepared blends had unique hydrogen bonding. TGA curves indicated that the thermal stability of prepared blends was changed. The Coats-Refern's model was used to calculate the thermal activation energy. The AC electrical conductivity and the dielectric behaviors in these blends were studied using the dielectric relaxation at different frequencies. Argand plots showed half semicircle which depicts the Debye-type relaxation process. The morphology from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) reveals that the degree of miscibility significantly improves as CMC content increases within the PEO/CMC blend matrix.