Yasuyo Matsumoto

Ion beam modification of aromatic polymers

Abstract We studied the optical, mechanical and thermal properties of aromatic polymer films which had been irradiated with 1 MeV H + , H 2 + and He + ions. The examined aromatic polymers were polyetherether ketone (PEEK), polyetherimide (PEI), polycther sulfon (PES), polysulfon (PSF), and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS). The optical densities at 300 nm of PES greatly increased after the irradiation. The optical densities at 400 nm of all the examined polymer linearly increased with the irradiation dose. Elongations of all the polymers at room temperature were reduced after irradiation. The PEEK film which had been irradiated with 1 MeV H + was not deformed above the melting point. This demonstrates that cross-linking occurs in PEEK films by ion beam irradiation. As for the effects, depending on the mass of the irradiated ions, it was found that the ions with a high mass induced larger effects on the arematic polymers for the same absorption energy.