Morphology identification of a polymer blend by time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry(ToF-SIMS) chemical imaging

The bulk morphology of a multi-component polymer blend of PC/PMMA/PVDF(50/20/30) was elucidated in derail by ToF-SIMS negative and positive chemical imaging. Based on the characteristic negative or positive secondary ions generated from different polymers under a Ga-69(+) beam, bulk morphology can clearly be identified. A combination of negative and positive ion chemical imaging directly revealed that PMMA is distributed in the PVDF phase. Our results indicated that even though ToF-SIMS is a special technique used in surface and interface studies, it is also a powerful tool in the study of bulk morphology of polymer blends.