Metal ion implantation and dynamic ion mixing for the protection of high-performance polymers from severe oxidative environment

Low energy high-dose Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation. combining both ion and recoil implantation (dynamic ion mixing). was used to enrich thin surfa ce layers of high-performance polymers with an appropriate amount of specia lly selected reactive metal element such as Al. Both oxygen plasma and fast (E similar to 2-3 eV) atomic oxygen (FAO) beam have been used as aggressiv e environments for testing the implanted polymers. The modified materials s uccessfully survived these test environments, including FAG, which is the m ain danger for carbon-based materials in space, in low Earth orbit. The ret ained doses of implanted and recoil implanted elements were controlled by R ES. The content, structure and morphology of the modified protective surfac e layers were examined by XPS and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It wa s shown that protective oxide(s)-based surface structures were formed. Impl antation and conversion conditions were found for which the appearance and important thermo-optical properties of treated polymer films, such as solar absorptance and thermal emittance. were practically unchanged. (C) 1999 El sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.