Determination of molecular weight and composition of a perfluorinated polymer from fragment intensities in time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry

Analysis of submicrogram quantities of a perfluorinated polyether (PFPE) homopolymer on different surfaces has been done by finding empirical, quantitative relationships between the intensities of specific peaks in the high mass fragmentation spectra of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and the composition of the PFPE and the number average molecular weight of the polymer samples. These relationships are explained in terms of a direct proportionality of the appropriate high mass fragment ion yields to these different properties of the PFPE material