Study of polymers and their blends using TOF-SIMS ion imaging

• A study of ion imaging of polymers by TOF-SIMS has been made.
• Polymer blends are also viewed using by TOF-SIMS.
• Directional properties could not be observed using TOF-SIMS.
• Tensile strength data of polymer blends can be correlated with TOF-SIMS ion images.

Time of flight mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) was used to see the feasibility of viewing polymer directionality initially of simple polymers like polyethylene (PE) and then graduating to relatively more complex polymer composites involving poly-urethene (PU) and Carbon Nano Tube (CNT) admixture with different mixture concentrations using the Bi ion source. Based on the ion images obtained, it is suggested that directional characteristics of polyethylene, or polyurethane were not visible. However, CNT clusters were identifiable in the pure form of the material and so was CNT inside the admixture. Change in cluster shape inside the admixture at different concentrations indicated the extent of change in strength in the polymer mixture to expect. It was possible to correlate such information with the polymer tensile strength and hardness data measured separately by traditional methods. Similar analysis of high resolution TOF-SIMS ion imaging of other polymer blends are likely to fetch important information on why certain compositions are stronger or why certain compositions do not have the desired or expected properties.