Agilent cary 5000 uv vis nir spectrophotometer

PANalytical X’Pert Pro X-ray diffractometer (Malvern Panalytical Ltd., Malvern, UK) with a Cu–Kα radiation at 2θ range from 10° to 60° (exposure time of 2 h) was applied to determine structure and crystallinity. The obtained diffraction patterns were juxtaposed with standards from the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD). Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR, Biorad 575C spectrophotometer, Hercules, CA, USA) in a frequency range of 4000–400 cm⁻¹ was used to determine the functional groups of the obtained materials. This was performed using independent replicates. The UV–Vis spectra were recorded on an Agilent Cary 5000 UV–Vis-NIR spectrophotometer (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) with a spectral bandwidth of 1 nm in the range of 200 to 800 nm (50,000–12,500 cm⁻¹). The morphology, element concentration, and mapping were performed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM, FEI Nova NanoSEM 230, Hillsboro, OR, USA) with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS, Genesis XM4, Austin, TX, USA). The EDS spectra were recorded three times for each sample and the calculated value was an average result.

Ultra-violet and Visible spectroscopy was carried out both in transmittance and reflectance modes, given that both transparent and opaque samples were under study. Spectra obtained in transmittance mode were collected using an Agilent Cary 5000 UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA), version 1.12, in a spectral range from 250–800 nm, at a scan rate of 600 nm/min, data interval of 1 nm and acquisition average time of 0.1 s. PMMA samples were placed in a specially designed holder (to ensure analysis was always performed in the same area) and analyzed in 0° angle (perpendicular to the light beam). Spectra obtained in reflectance mode were collected in a Shimadzu UV2501PC spectrophotometer (Kyoto, Japan) equipped with an integrating sphere, in a spectral range from 240–900 nm, at very slow option scan rate, and data interval of 1 nm. BaSO₄ was used as reference sample. All spectra were collected as absorption (Abs) spectra.