Quantitative surface characterization of poly(styrene)/poly(4-vinyl phenol) random and block copolymers by ToF-SIMS and XPS

A series of spin-cast films of poly(styrene-co-4-vinyl phenol) (STVPh) rand om copolymers and polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinyl phenol) (PS-b-PVPh), which hav e the same building units but different chain architecture, were analysed b y x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion m ass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). The XPS results show that there was no surface segregation of any component for the STVPh random copolymers. The calibrat ion curves for ToF-SIMS intensity as a function of the VPh content were obt ained for the STVPh random copolymers. These calibration curves were used t o determine the surface chemical composition of the block copolymers. The T oF-SIMS results agreed well with the angle-dependent XPS results. Time-of-f light SIMS also was shown to be able to distinguish PS-b-PVPh from the STVP h random copolymers by the absence of the peaks corresponding to the St-VPh or St-St-VPh sequence structures. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Lt d.