Research Article Effect of Nano ZnO on the Optical Properties of Poly(vinyl chloride) Films Wasan Al-Taa’y, 1 Mohammed Abdul Nabi, 1 Rahimi M. Yusop, 2 Emad Yousif, 3 Bashar Mudhaffar Abdullah, 2 Jumat Salimon, 2 Nadia Salih, 2 and Saiful Irwan Zubairi 2 1 Department of Physics, College of Science, AL-Nahrain University, Baghdad 64021, Iraq 2 School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia 3 Department of Chemistry, College of Science, AL-Nahrain University, Baghdad 64021, Iraq Correspondence should be addressed to Rahimi M. Yusop; rahimi@ukm.my Received 22 December 2013; Accepted 20 January 2014; Published 2 March 2014 Academic Editor: Yulin Deng Copyright © 2014 Wasan Al-Taa’y et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Optical properties of pure and doped poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) ilms, prepared by using casting technique, with diferent nanosize zinc oxide (ZnO) concentrations (1–20)wt% have been studied. Parameters such as extinction coeicient, refractive index, real and imaginary parts, Urbach energy, optical conductivity, ininitely high frequency dielectric constant, and average refractive index were studied by using the absorbance and transmittance measurement from computerized UV-visible spectrophotometer (Shimadzu UV-1601 PC) in the spectral range 200–800 nm. his study reveals that the optical properties of PVC are afected by the doping of ZnO where the absorption increases and transmission decreases as ZnO concentration increases. he extinction coeicient, refractive index, real and imaginary parts, ininitely high frequency dielectric constant, and average refractive index values were found to increase with increasing impurity percentage. he Urbach energy values are found to be decreasing with increasing ZnO concentration. he optical conductivity increased with photon energy ater being doped and with the increase of ZnO concentration. 1. Introduction A nanoparticle is the most fundamental component in the fabrication of a nanostructure; metallic nanoparticles have diferent physical and chemical properties from bulk metals (lower melting points, higher speciic surface area, speciic optical properties, mechanical strength, and speciic mag- netization) properties that might prove to be attractive in various industrial applications. he optical property is one of the fundamental attraction and characteristic of nanoparticle [1]. Science the introduction of metal nanoparticles in trans- parent polymer matrix, polymeric nanocomposites have attracted the attention of researches as advanced techno- logical materials because of their unique optical, electronic, mechanical, and structural characteristics. hese character- istics are obtained from the unique combination of the inherent characteristics of polymers and metal nanoparticles. he characteristics of these nanocomposite ilms can be manipulated by varying the polymer matrix, nanoparticles, and their composition. Polymer nanocomposites have been fabricated with diferent polymers and nanoparticles. he incorporation of the nanoparticles into polar polymers can induce signiicant changes in the ultimate properties of polymers and improve their properties [2]. Polymer material is widely being used in various devices as insulating material and for optoelectronic applications. his is due to their unique properties such as light weight, high lexibility, and ability to be fabricated at low temper- ature and low cost [3, 4]. Optical communications, includ- ing polymer optical ibers, optical waveguides, and optical connectors due to their ease of processing, relatively low cost, and mass production are compared to silica-based optical materials. hey also have potential advantages for applications in optical storage systems, such as high thermal stability, low absorption loss, and the ability of refractive Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Polymer Science Volume 2014, Article ID 697809, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/697809