CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYMER SURFACES AND POLYMER METAL INTERFACES BY STATIC SECONDARY ION MASS-SPECTROMETRY

The applicability of Time-of-Flight SIMS (TOFSIMS) to the study of adhesion phenomena is discussed. The technique is especially powerful for the study of interactions at polymer-metal interfaces. This is demonstrated by a number of examples of TOFSIMS analysis of polymer surfaces, metal pretreatments and paint-metal interfaces of materials used in the automotive industry. The TOFSIMS high-resolution spectrum of a film of Nylon-6(R) is interpreted in some detail. The metal pretreatments that are discussed are by functional silanes. Thin organic films deposited on metals by plasma polymerization of silanes have also been analyzed. It is demonstrated that such films can be characterized by TOFSIMS. In several cases surface analyses by XPS and AES were also carried out in order to illustrate the complementary information that can be obtained by the application of these three major surface analysis techniques. The analysis of the paint-metal interfaces by TOFSIMS allows conclusions to be drawn about the state of cure of the paint and about preferential segregation of low-molecular-weight paint constituents to the metal surface.