Abstract
Poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK) was irradiated with 4 MeV O+ and 5 and 10 MeV Au+ ions to the fluences from 1012 to 1014 cm−2 and then treated in 5 M/l water solution of LiCl for one month at room temperature. After drying and removal of LiCl surface contamination, the depth distribution of LiCl embeded in PEEK was measured by the neutron depth profilig method (NDP) sensitive to 6Li isotope. Embeded LiCl is believed to map distribution of water diffusing into PEEK interior. The results show that the PEEK irradiated to the fluences above 1.1013cm−2 is prone to water penetration to the depths of few microns. On the pristine PEEK and that irradiated to lower ion fluences only a surface Li contamination is observed.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.