Secondary ion mass spectrometry for the identification of polymers with noncharacteristic secondary ions using multivariate statistical analysis

Abstract

Eleven different, filler-free polymers were depth profiled until all secondary ion signals were stable. Discriminant function analysis and principal components analysis were performed on a dataset containing the intensities of noncharacteristic hydrocarbon secondary ions, measured in this steady state. Discriminant function analysis showed that these secondary ions were sufficient to correctly identify all polymers using leave-one-out correction. Even with principal components analysis, which uses no prior knowledge about the origin of a data point, identification was shown to be possible.

Mass Spectrometry of Synthetic Polymers

“…They observed that at higher irradiation doses cross-linking is dominant and at low irradiation doses chain scission dominates. Multvariate statistical analysis was used to demonstrate that 11 polymers could be identified from databases containing noncharacteristic secondary ions measured under steady-state SIMS conditions (98). Van Gennip et al showed that all 11 polymers could be identified using principle component analysis (98).…”

“…Multvariate statistical analysis was used to demonstrate that 11 polymers could be identified from databases containing noncharacteristic secondary ions measured under steady-state SIMS conditions (98). Van Gennip et al showed that all 11 polymers could be identified using principle component analysis (98). Segalman et al used dynamic SIMS to measure the diffusion of deuterium-labeled atactic PS from the surface of a polydisperse isotactic PS (99).…”