THE CHEMISTRY OF DEPOSITS FORMED FROM ACRYLIC-ACID PLASMAS

SIMS and XPS were used to characterise the chemistry of thin plasma po lymerised acrylic acid films (ppAAc), and to determine how this was in fluenced by plasma power. Quartz microbalance weight measurements were used to monitor the effect of power on the deposition rate and identi fy the uptake of water vapour by the films upon exposure to the atmosp here. Functional group derivatisation and XPS were used to quantify th e proportion of carboxylic acid and ester functionalities. Derivatisat ion revealed that the level of retention in the deposit could be contr olled by the plasma deposition power (P) up to a maximum of 66% at P = 2 W. TOF SIMS analysis identified the presence of linear structures w ith up to five monomer units in the high retention deposit. The role o f such structures in functional retention is discussed with reference to mass spectrometry data in the literature.