Characterization and dielectric studies of hydrogen-beam-irradiated PDMS polymeric materials

In this work, PDMS films are treated with varying fluence of hydrogen ion beams (6 × 10 17 , 9 × 10 17 , and 12 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 ) for used in storage energy devices. XRD and FTIR were used to analyze the PDMS films. Furthermore, the SEM is employed to study the morphological alterations in treated PDMS films. Both XRD and FTIR result indicated that PDMS is chemically interacting after ion treatment. In addition, the dielectric parameters of PDMS films are measured using an LCR device in the frequencies 10 2 –10 6 Hz. After PDMS exposed to 12 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 , the dielectric constant of the PDMS increased from 23.4 to 44.8, and energy density increased from 1.01 × 10 –4 to 1.92 × 10 –4 J/m 3 , while the conductivity increased from 0.29 × 10 –7 to 4.3 × 10 –7 S/cm. Moreover, the real M ′ decreased from 0.198 for PDMS to 0.165 for 6 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 and to 0.052 at 12 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 , while the imaginary M ″ is decreased from 0.205 to 0.155 for 6 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 , and to 0.069 for 12 × 10 17 ions/cm 2 . The studies indicated that the structure as well as electrical characteristics of the treated PDMS had been improved, which allowing being used these substances in different electronic instrumentations. Graphical abstract (a) The SEM image of untreared PDMS (b) SEM image of irradiated PDMS, (c) the ion source irradiation facility, (d) the energy density as a function of ion fluence of untreated and irradiated PDMS