AVS 49th International Symposium
    Applied Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session AS-TuP

Paper AS-TuP9
SIMS Analysis of Copolymers: A Test for Statistical Ordering

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 5:30 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B2

Session: Topics in Applied Surface Science
Presenter: S. Clarke, University of Nottingham, UK
Authors: A.G. Shard, University of Sheffield, UK
S. Clarke, University of Nottingham, UK
M.C. Davies, University of Nottingham, UK
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Statistical copolymers of lactic and glycolic acids (PLGA) have been investigated by SIMS. The composition of the copolymer can be determined through analysis of the intensities of secondary ions which contain several monomer units, as described previously for non-statistical copolymers.@footnote 1@ We describe here a method for determining whether the SIMS data are consistent with the copolymer being statistical. This method is applicable to any copolymer, the only requirement being the detection of secondary ions containing two or more monomer units. This information is used to determine the relative ion yields of selected secondary ions in the SIMS spectra of PLGA and the invariance of ion yields across a large composition range is shown, validating our previous work. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@Shard AG, Davies MC, Li X, Volland C, Kissel T, Macromolecules 30, 3051, 1997.