A study on the optical, chemical and dielectric properties of PPCIN thin films derived from essential oil compounds using RF plasma polymerisation technique

Polymer-based nanostructured films were produced on various substrates using Radio Frequency (RF) plasma polymerization technique from Cinnamaldehyde monomer which is an organic compound. To fabricate polymer thin film, the pressure, the deposition time and RF power were set to 480 mTorr, 30 min and 15, 20 and 30 W, respectively. The effect of RF power on the optical, morphological and chemical properties of thin films were investigated. The optical, morphological and chemical properties were determined by UV–Vis spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and FTIR spectroscopy, respectively. The average surface roughness of thin films was detected as 5.7 nm, 3.9 nm and 11.7 nm using AFM depending on the increase in RF power. Using FTIR spectroscopy, the chemical structure of the polymer thin films was compared with that of the monomer material, and it was found that the majority of the functional groups belonging to the monomers also appeared in the thin films. Optical band gap of thin films increased with RF power and these values were determined as 2.83 eV, 3.05 eV and 2.98 eV, respectively. The extinction coefficients and refractive indices of the thin films were measured at 500 nm between 0.00183–0.00522 and 2.40–2.78, respectively.