Abstract
The thermo-oxidative stability and molecular weight were determined for polyimide and polyamide-imide thin films, deposited by resonant infrared laser ablation (RIR-LA). RIR-LA films were deposited at various wavelengths and compared with the traditional solution-cast films using thermogravimetric analysis. The RIR-LA films showed slightly lower oxidation temperatures, but the initial weight loss temperatures were greater. Since molecular weight is directly correlated with the physical and mechanical properties of the polymer, multiangle laser light scattering was employed to ascertain the weight-average molecular weight of the polymers before and after LA. The RIR-LA films exhibited slightly reduced weight-average molecular weight. This degradation has three possible sources: bond scission during LA, reduced solvent transfer leading to lower chain extension and hydrolysis caused by the presence of atmospheric water.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 775-782 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | High Performance Polymers |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2012 |
Funding
The author NLD is supported by a fellowship from the Interdisciplinary Graduate Education, Research and Training (IGERT) program of the National Science Foundation (DMR-0333392). The experiments were partially supported by the Naval Research Laboratory (N00173-05-P-0059); the Vanderbilt Free-Electron Laser Center is supported by the Medical FEL Program of the Department of Defense, administered by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-01-1-0429). The analytical portion of this research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which was sponsored at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy.
Keywords
- laser ablation
- polyamide-imide
- polyetherimide