Study of the effects of MeV Ions on PS and PES

The electronic and nuclear stopping effects produced by MeV ion bombardment in polyethylene (PE) and polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) have been previously studied and reported. We have subsequently selected two other insulators: polystyrene (PS) and polyethersulfone (PES) which contains sulfur as a crosslinking agent, and irradiated them with MeV alpha particles. The electronic and nuclear effects of the incident ions were separated by stacking thin films of the polymers. A layered system was selected such that the first layers experienced most of the effects of the electronic energy deposited and the last layers received most of the effects of the nuclear stopping. The changes in the chemical structure were measured by residual gas analysis (RGA), Raman microprobe analysis, RBS and FTIR. The post-irradiation characterization resolved the effects of the stopping powers on the PS and PES and the results were compared with those from PE and PVDC.