Atomic Oxygen Erosion Yield Dependence Upon Texture Development in Polymers

Abstract

The atomic oxygen erosion yield (volume of a polymer that is lost due to oxidation per incident atom) of polymers is typically assumed to be reasonably constant with increasing fluence. However polymers containing ash or inorganic pigments, tend to have erosion yields that decrease with fluence due to an increasing presence of protective particles on the polymer surface. This paper investigates two additional possible causes for erosion yields of polymers that are dependent upon atomic oxygen. These are the development of surface texture which can cause the erosion yield to change with fluence due to changes in the aspect ratio of the surface texture that develops and polymer specific atomic oxygen interaction parameters. The surface texture development under directed hyperthermal attack produces higher aspect ratio surface texture than isotropic thermal energy atomic oxygen attack. The fluence dependence of erosion yields is documented for low Kapton H (DuPont, Wilmington, DE) effective fluences for a variety of polymers under directed hyperthermal and isotropic thermal energy attack.