Ion-induced molecular emission of polymers: analytical potentialities of FTIR and mass spectroscopy

The release of small gaseous molecules is a general phenomenon of irradiated polymers. Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polybutene (PB) were irradiated with ions of different electronic stopping power. We show that the gas emission can provide important information on the damage process if a reliable chemical identification of the molecules released and accurate yield values are obtained. The outgassing products were analysed by two techniques: (1) by a novel set-up using a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis of the gas mixture released from the polymer film and (2) by residual gas analysis (RGA) with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Comparing the analytical potentialities of both methods we come to the conclusion that the FTIR method gives a more straightforward and accurate determination of the chemical nature and of the yield of most of the released molecules. However, RGA provides complementary information on the gas release kinetics and also on the release of heavy hydrocarbon molecules and symmetric molecules like molecular hydrogen. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.