SURFACE-ANALYSIS OF POLYMER MATERIALS BY SECONDARY-ION MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Atomic as well as molecular secondary ions are emitted from the upperm ost monolayer of a solid during ion bombardment. Mass analysis of thes e positive and negative secondary ions supplies detailed information o n the chemical composition of the bombarded surface. High mass range ( > 10,000 u), high mass resolution (m/DELTAm > 10,000), accurate mass d etermination (ppm range) and high sensitivity (ppm of a monolayer) are achieved by applying time-of-flight (TOF) mass analyzers. TOF-SIMS ha s been successfully applied to a wide variety of polymer materials, in cluding polymer blends, chemically or plasma modified surfaces, and pl asma polymerization layers. Detailed information on the composition of repeat units, endgroups, oligomer distributions, additives, as well a s surface contaminants can be obtained. Basic concepts of TOF-SIMS wil l be described and typical analytical examples for the characterizatio n of polymer materials will be presented.