Degradation of nickel (86 MeV) ion irradiated polystyrene

Samples of polystyrene films were irradiated under vacuum at room temperature with 58Ni7+ (86 MeV) ion with fluences ranging from 1 × 1011 to 1 × 1013 ions cm−2. Ion induced structural modifications were studied by means of atomic force microscopy atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–visible absorption spectroscopy (UV–Vis) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. Atomic force microscopy shows that the root mean square (RMS) roughness of the irradiated polystyrene surface increases with the increment of ion fluence. XRD analysis reveals that in addition to the increase of amorphization of polymer with the increase of ion fluence there is also an increase of ordering (to a small extent) in some of the micro-domains. These results have further been supported by the study of optical and chemical analysis. The analysis of present study shows that the increase of full width at half maximum (FWHM) of first peak of XRD spectra, decrease of optical band gap and the formation of new alkyne group may be attributed to the increase of amorphization of polystyrene. Similarly, sharpening of second X-ray diffraction peak, decrease of Urbach’s energy and increase in the absorbance ratio of I1222/I1183 may be owed to the increase of ordering in some domains.