Effects of oxygen irradiation on the electrical properties of polyethylene oxide/nickel oxide composite films

This study investigates the impact of the ion beam on the properties of composite PEO/NiO, which was fabricated using the solution casting method and applied in advanced dielectric applications. The samples were exposed to ion beam at different fluencies (5 × 10¹⁶, 10 × 10¹⁶, and 15 × 10¹⁶ ions/cm²) using cold cathode ion source. The structure of the pure and treated PEO/NiO films was studied using the XRD technique, which demonstrated the successful fabrication of the composite PEO/NiO. Moreover, the morphological changes were analyzed by SEM, which indicates the homogeneous distribution of NiO in PEO. Furthermore, the dielectric characteristics of PEO/NiO films were tested at a frequency range of 40–10⁶ Hz. The dielectric constant enhanced from 22.8 for PEO/NiO to 128.5 for the irradiated 15 × 10¹⁶ ions/cm², and the energy density enhanced from 1.1x10⁻⁴ to 5.6x10⁻⁴ J/m³. The results demonstrate that the irradiated PEO/NiO composite exhibits novel dielectric properties, allowing the use of the irradiated PEO/NiO composite in different devices as super-capacitors and batteries.