ToF-SIMS analysis of ion implanted standard to quantify insecticide in mosquito netting with cesium and argon gas cluster sputtering beams

Ion implantation has been investigated for quantification of species in organic materials. Quantitative analysis of two insecticides in mosquito netting was recently achieved by ion implantation and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy analysis with a Cs+ sputtering beam [Zhou et al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol., B 34, 03H107 (2016) and Zhou et al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol., B 35, 031802 (2017)]. Gas cluster ion beams (GCIBs) are of increasing utility in depth profiling of organic materials, and it was of interest to try the ion implantation approach with argon GCIB. The study was conducted on permethrin treated mosquito netting and on the substrate material [high density polyethylene (HDPE)] which was ion implanted with chlorine. The negative ion mass spectrum of permethrin is dominated by Cl−. Analysis of the ion implanted HDPE with Cs+ provided the expected Gaussian distribution, but analysis with argon GCIB shows a very sharp change in matrix species intensity at the penetration depth of the ion impl...