Investigation of organic coatings and coating defects with the help of time-of-flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS)

Among the commercially available surface analytical methods time-of-flight- secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS)plays a prominent role. This is d ue to its outstanding surface sensitivity combined with the detailed molecu lar information obtained. Therefore, the method is extremely well suited fo r the chemical characterization of the uppermost layers of the material und er study. The detailed knowledge about the composition of these layers can be favourably used to support the development of coatings and to elucidate coating defects. This article describes the principles of TOF-SIMS and illu strates its ability by a number of examples from daily work. The samples an alysed include typical coating defects, such as cratering and delamination, as well as undisturbed coating layers where we were interested in the chem ical composition of the uppermost layers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. Al l rights reserved.