TY - JOUR A1 - Min, Hyegeun A1 - Wettmarshausen, Sascha A1 - Friedrich, Jörg Florian A1 - Unger, Wolfgang T1 - A ToF-SIMS study of the deuterium-hydrogen exchange induced by ammonia plasma treatment of polyolefins JF - Journal of analytical atomic spectrometry N2 - ToF-SIMS has been used to study the surface functionalization of polypropylene and polyethylene samples by exposure to low-pressure ammonia plasma. Static secondary ion mass spectrometry is an appropriate tool to determine hydrogen isotopes as elements and in fragment ions with high sensitivity and selectivity. Specifically the exchange of hydrogen isotopes and the incorporation of N-containing moieties in the near-surface layer of the polyolefins have been studied in ND3 plasma experiments with conventional polypropylene (h-PP) and polyethylene (h-PE) and NH3 plasma experiments with deuterated polyethylene (d-PE). Considering the exchange of hydrogen between the plasma and the polymer surface studied by using deuterated ammonia and polyolefin samples the conclusion has been derived that polypropylene with its side chain methyl groups is more susceptible to hydrogen exchange reactions. For ND3 plasma treatment of polyethylene and polypropylene similar N-containing fragments were obtained and the measured semi-quantitative ToF-SIMS N-uptake data are rather similar. The observation of a wide range of characteristic mixed CkNlHmDn+ secondary fragment ions suggests complex and manifold reaction pathways at the polymer–plasma interface besides simple grafting of –ND2 or –NH2 moieties formed by ammonia fragmentation in the plasma. Finally, indications of an isotopic effect for hydrogen isotopes in the plasma process have been observed by comparison of ND3/h-PE results with those of NH3/d-PE. KW - ToF-SIMS KW - Hydrogen-deuterium exchange KW - Ammonia plasma treatment KW - Amine-functionalized polymer KW - Polyolefins PY - 2011 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c1ja10043b SN - 0267-9477 SN - 1364-5544 VL - 26 SP - 1157 EP - 1165 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - London AN - OPUS4-23754 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -