Erosion of a Polyimide Material Exposed to Simulated Atomic Oxygen Environment

Oxygen plasma source generated by thermal cathode filament discharge has been used to study the erosion process of polyimide (PI) materials in atomic oxygen (AO) environment, and their mass loss, surface morphology and surface chemical compositions have been examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) after exposure to incremental AO flux. The data indicate that the physical adsorption of AO at the samples' surface results in the increase of oxygen concentration when polyimide is exposed to AO flux. Then selective chemical reactions of groups of polyimide materials with AO yield volatile organic compounds, sample mass loss is on linear increase and carpet-like surface morphology forms. In the initial exposure to AO, the reaction occurs mainly between AO and carbon in specific location of aromatic ring, then the reaction rate of C=O groups gradually increases. After AO exposure, the oxygen concentration increases while nitrogen and carbon concentration decreases. Reaction rate of groups containing nitrogen is slower compared with carbon and oxygen.