Infrared spectroscopy polymethylmethacrylate

Brendle described a process which he called polymer grafting, in which particles of molybdenum disulphide or other solid lubricants were coated with various polymers, including polystyrene, polymethylmethacrylate and poly-isobutylvinyl ether. The process was most conveniently carried out by grinding coarse molybdenum disulphide powder in a 20% - 30% solution of the appropriate monomer in a solvent. The quantity of polymer added to the molybdenum disulphide particles was very small, and could not be detected by scanning electron microscopy or infrared spectroscopy. The carbon content (1-4%) indicated a polymer content up to 6% maximum. Brendle considered that the polymer was preferentially grafted onto surface freshly exposed by grinding. This may be partly true, but in view of later... 

Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) has been applied to polymethylmethacrylate, polystyrene and polyethylene glycol. Surface enhanced infrared reflection microscopy was applied to polyacrylonitrile, polybutadiene and styrene resins whilst Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was applied to polyimides. Finally, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been applied to the examination of the surfaces of films of polyethylene, Suryln and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer. ... 

A relatively unknown technique (laser desorption fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectroscopy) has been used (397) to identify dyes in plastics such as polymethylmethacrylate. A detection limit of 0.1% was obtained, which compared with a limit of 1-2% using an ATR infrared spectroscopy technique. 

Fig. 2. ATR spectra obtained as a function of angle of incidence from a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) film of thickness 0.5 p,m that was deposited onto a germanium hemi-cylinder. The solid line represents the ATR spectrum of PMMA while the squares represent the film thickness that was recovered from the infrared spectra using four different bands. Reprinted by permission of Society for Applied Spectroscopy from Ref. [4].

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