Amendment the surface structure and optical properties of Makrofol LT by low energy oxygen ion bombardment

Ion beam bombardment is a powerful technique to improve the surface properties of polymeric materials without changing the bulk properties. Herein, Makrofol LT films were bombarded with low energy of oxygen ions at different fluences ranging from 11 × 10¹⁷ to 44 × 10¹⁷ ions/cm². X-ray diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, surface-roughness tester, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, and Fluorescence spectroscopy were used to examine the change in the structure, chemical functional groups, alteration in surface roughness parameters, and photo-physical properties. The obtained results evidenced that the ordering and disordering structure of bombarded Makrofol LT films were influenced by ion beam irradiation according to the ion fluence. The FTIR spectroscopy of functional group examination revealed the possibility of the presence of sp²-carbon clusterization and amorphization. The surface roughness parameters increase as the ion fluences increase. Optical measurements exhibit a shift of absorption-edge towards the visible zone that correlated to the surface damage and the creation of CC bonds. The fluorescence spectra exhibit that the yield intensities decrease with increasing ion fluences. This refers to improvement in the radiative-recombination rate relative to non-radiative recombination. This is attributable to the growth of clusters, the increase of density states of the surface, and the increase in the surface roughness of the bombarded samples.