Analysis of polymer surfaces by SIMS 6—detection of cyclic oligomer on the surface of poly(ethylene terephthalate) film

Abstract The dominant oligomeric species in poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is cyclic trimer. Comparison of the SIMS spectra of pure polymer and cyclic trimer shows a markedly more intense peak at 577 daltons in the positive ion spectrum from the trimer, since this is the mass of the quasi‐molecular ion. This difference can be used to semi‐quantitatively analyse for cyclic trimer which has migrated to the surface of PET film.