Structural modification of poly(methyl methacrylate) by proton irradiation

A general survey is presented on the structural modification of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) by proton implantation. The implanted PMMA films were characterized by FT-IR attenuated total reflection (FT-IR ATR), Raman, Rut herford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), gel permeation chromatography (G PC) and surface profiling. The ion fluence of 350 keV protons ranged from 2 x 10(14) to 1 x 10(15) ions/cm(2). The IR and Raman spectra showed the red uction of peaks from the pendant group of PMMA. The change of absorption an d composition was observed by W-VIS and RES, respectively. These results sh owed that the pendant group is readily decomposed and eliminated by proton irradiation. The change of molecular weight distribution was also measured by GPC and G-value of scission was estimated to be 0.67. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.