Improved surface properties of PTFE polymer films using broad ion source

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to improve the surface properties of the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) polymer films by ion beam irradiation with 2 keV Ar⁺ energy and various ion fluence ranging from 1×10¹⁷ to 3×10¹⁷ ions/cm². Various characterization techniques, namely, X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis spectroscopy and electrical measurements have been used to confirm these changes. XRD measurement shows the decrease of the XRD peak intensity and reflects some loss of crystallinity after irradiation. The UV-Vis has shown a shift of the absorption edge of irradiated samples towards the visible region. The band gap energy E_g was calculated using Tauc’s relation, and its value decreases with an increase of ion fluence for all irradiated samples. Increasing ion fluence leads to slight increase in electrical conductivities (σ_dc and σ_ac) and dielectric loss ε₂ for PTFE samples.