Microanalysis of Ar and He bombarded biomedical polymer films

Abstract: Implantations onto polyethyleneglycol, polycaprolactone and polymethylmethacrylate, carried out with Ar and He ions at 25 and 100KeV with fluences of 5×1013 cm−2, have been made with identical ion currents (20μA) but different sweep areas in order to take into account the effect of the ion flux on the composition and structure of these biopolymers. Vibrational (Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy), microanalytical (Rutherford backscattering and energy recoil detection) and microscopic techniques (atomic force microscopy) confirm that, even in this low fluence regime, the ion flux effect is responsible of scaled modifications. More interestingly, these techniques indicate that the damage seems to be higher for He. All these factors suggest that He could be preferentially used to engineer biomedical polymers exploiting the tailoring opportunities offered by ion flux effects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]