Polyetherimide (Ultem®) Spin Cast Films by XPS

Abstract

A spin cast film of polyetherimide (Ultem® 1000, GE Plastics) was analyzed by XPS using monochromatic Al Kα excitation. The measured atomic composition closely matched the expected stoichiometry of the polymer. Peak positions of the individual chemically shifted C 1s, O 1s, and N 1s components are reported. The results are in general agreement with other reported spectra of polyetherimide polymers: experimental, C 83.0%, O 12.9%, and N 4.1%; theoretical, C 82.2%, O 13.3%, and N 4.3%.

Structuring and characterization of a novel highly microporous PEI/BMI semi-interpenetrating polymer network

“…Therefore, these results suggest the cleavage of the imide group and the formation of polyamic acid in PEI-BMI-EtOH S and L membranes. The decrease in the intensity of the weak broad peak between 290 and 294 eV assigned to the shake up satellite of phenyl groups from p to p* [47] might indicate that the PEI-BMIi-PrOH has a lower donor-acceptor charge transfer complexation compared to other membrane materials [50].…”

“…The total area of all peaks assigned for all elements in the XPS spectra of PEI was scaled to have the same total area as in the XPS spectra of PEI-EtOH membrane. We have also kept the percentage ratio for the areas of the elemental carbon, oxygen and nitrogen as in the reference source [47]. Therefore, these rescaled spectra can reproduce the same percentage atomic concentration of the assigned peaks exactly as in the source reference.…”

“…6. Three types of carbon having binding energies with maximum located at 285, 286.2 and 288.7 eV were assigned as listed in Table 3 [47]. A fourth peak with maximum energy located at 291.4 eV was assigned to the shake up satellite of phenyl groups from p to p* [47].…”

“…The charge correction of the binding energy scale for all actual experimental XPS data was achieved by shifting the total spectra for all elements by the same value in order to have the most intense peak for elemental carbon which was assigned in Table 3 at binding energy (BE) of 285 eV as described in literature [48]. The spectral data of PEI obtained from literature [47] was rescaled for comparison with the spectral data in this work. The total area of all peaks assigned for all elements in the XPS spectra of PEI was scaled to have the same total area as in the XPS spectra of PEI-EtOH membrane.…”

“…The core-level spectra for PEI-i-PrOH and PEI-BMI-i-PrOH-L membranes were not shown as the first one was similar to PEI-EtOH membranes and the second to PEI-BMI-i-PrOH-S with some insignificant differences. The spectral data for PEI (Ultem w 1000) film prepared from chloroform solution [47] were added in these figures for comparison. The linear baselines were set to the same value for all spectra in all figures.…”