Abstract
Ion beams have been found to be widely applicable in improving the structure and physical properties of polymers. In this paper, the effect of ion bombardment on the optical properties of low density polyethylene (LDPE)/styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) blend (LDPE/SBR) was studied. Polymer samples were bombarded with 130 keV He and 320 keV Ar ions to fluencies ranging from 1 x 10(13) to 2 x 10(16) ions cm(-2). The pristine and ion beam bombarded samples were investigated using ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry. The optical band gap (E-g) was decreased from similar to 2.3 to similar to 1.22 eV for the pristine sample and those samples bombarded with He and Ar ions at the highest fluence. The change in the optical gap indicates the presence of a gradual phase transition for the polymer blends. With increasing ion fluence, a decrease in both the energy gap and the activation energy was observed. The number of carbon atoms (N) in a formed cluster is found to be directly proportional to ion fluence and is determined according to the modified Tauc equation.