N+ surface doping on nanoscale polymer fabrics via ion implantation

Non-woven poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) fabrics composed of small diameter (∼110 nm) fibers have been spun by an electrospinning technique and then have been modified by ion implantation. 1.7 MeV N+ ion implantation with a dose of 1.2 × 1016 ions/cm2 was applied on the fabrics through a metal foil at room temperature. By using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), no surface morphology degradation has been observed on the fabric after the ion beam treatment. The diameter of the fibers has shrunk by 30% to about 74 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) show that nitrogen surface doping was achieved and the formation of two new functional chemical groups (N–CO and C–N) in the PVA is observed.