Silver nanoparticles reinforced on silk fibroin/carboxymethylcellulose composite films for electrical applications

This study proposes the fabrication of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on silk fibroin-carboxymethylcellulose (SF-CMC) composite films for advancement in electronic device applications. Bombyx mori silk fibroin is a biopolymer that is used as a bio-template in the fabrication of AgNPs. Various silver nitrate (AgNO3) combinations are added to the prepared SF solution to synthesize AgNPs. To develop stand-alone biopolymer-nanocomposite (SF-CMC/AgNPs) films, SF-AgNPs colloidal solution is blended with CMC solution. Ultra Violet – Visible (UV–Vis), Photoluminescence (PL), Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) have been employed to the prepared SF-CMC/AgNPs composites toevaluate the physical, chemical, structural, morphological, and topographical information of the composite films. Furthermore, the composites are subjected to LCR Hi-tester and electrochemical workstation CH instrument to analyze the AC, DC conductivity, dielectric characteristics, and electrochemical impedance analysis of SF-CMC/AgNPs composites. The UV–visible spectra reveals the formed nanoparticles in spherical shape with average particle size 35–40 nm. XRD reveals the formed AgNPs in face centred cubic (FCC) structure; TEM reveals the average particle size of 35 nm. AC conductivity of the SF-CMC/AgNPs composite found to be 4.0 × 10−4 to 8.04 × 10−4 S/cm. In spite of the presence of AgNPs, measurements of the dielectric behaviourof pure CMC and SF-CMC materials exhibit good dielectric performance. The obtained results demonstrated that the SF-CMCfilms exhibit significant conductivity following AgNPs incorporation and may therefore be used in biosensor and wearable electronic device applications.