Investigation of Optical Properties of Silver Nanoparticle Contamination Effect on Titanium Dioxide Nanofibers

Regarding the rapid development of optical communication, finding and preparing new materials with very fast and large optical responses are essential for making optical switches and processing equipment. Recently the use of materials smaller than micrometers and nanometers has been studied by researchers for a wide range of applications. The most important of these materials are nanofibers. Also, titanium dioxide is used as one of the most important materials in the field of optical communication. In this research, titanium dioxide nanoparticles with anatase phase were prepared using the sol-gel method and transformed into nanofibers using the electrospinning technique. To improve the performance of these nanofibers, they were also doped with silver nanoparticles. Raman spectroscopy was performed to ensure the purity of the particles of this material. It was found that the samples are all pure titanium dioxide (TiO2) powder in nanoscale and there are no impurities in their structure. The particle distribution of these nanomaterials showed that their size is in the range of 10-20 nm. Conditions for nanofiber electrospinning are: 10 cm distance between the needle and the collector, the feed rate of 2 mL/h, and the maximum voltage used was 15.5 kV. Also, silver colloidal nanoparticles were prepared by Li and Masil experimental method. The structure of fibers was studied in terms of material type using Raman spectroscopy and morphology with an optical microscope and fiber conductivity by FT-IR spectroscopy by determining optical coefficients. Optical microscopy showed that the surface of the nanofibers was smooth and flat and without beads. The diameter distribution of nanofibers was also very narrow (155±5 nm). FT-IR spectroscopy showed that on the surface of nanofibers, there were hydroxyl functional groups that were formed during the preparation of nanofibers. Finally, Raman spectroscopy showed the presence of impurities of silver nanoparticles (15±2 nm).