Reduction of matrix effects in polystyrene/poly(methylene methacrylate) blends by metal-assisted secondary ion mass spectrometry.

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is a very surface sensitive analysis technique with low detection limits. The main drawback of SIMS is its inherent incapability of providing quantitative information about sample compositions due to the frequent occurrence of ionization- and sputter-induced matrix effects. Metal-assisted SIMS (MetA-SIMS) is an experimental approach that consists in covering an organic sample with a minute amount of a noble metal prior to a static SIMS analysis, the main objective being an increase of the characteristic secondary ion intensities. We show in this article that MetA-SIMS is also a simple and efficient tool for reducing matrix effects in a set of polymer blend samples containing different relative concentrations polystyrene (PS) and poly(methylene methacrylate) (PMMA). These findings can be explained by diffusion processes leading to a sample surface configuration consisting of individual polymer chains embedded in a common Ag matrix.