Abstract—Development of high electric conductivity in polymers by doping triggered the emergence of polymers in electronics and optoelectronics. Semiconducting properties are established in conjugated polymers by a process similar doping in inorganic semiconductors. We had demonstrated that as in the case of chemical doping, ion implantation also could be used effectively in doping elastomers. Implant doping can create an insulator-semiconductor transition in Natural Rubber (cis 1, 4 polyisoprene), a member of the well-known butadiene family, in the unvulcanized state using N⁺ ion. In this work an account of the investigations carried out in an artificial rubber, Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR) by low energy ion implantation will be discussed. The measurements of electrical conductivity indicates that the conductivities of SBR increases more than 9 orders of magnitude compared to pristine state and is found to increase with fluence. The evidence for conjugation, which is likely to be responsible for the enhancement of electrical conductivities, is obtained from the UV/Vis studies and from the spectra the optical band gap has been evaluated. Results of the SEM imaging shows that the N⁺ ion implantation induces changes in surface morphology of the polyisoprene films. Besides, a comparative study has been performed with the chemically (iodine) doped SBR to check the effect of implant doping.

Index Terms—Conjugation, electrical conductivity, implantation, optical properties.

Najidha S. is with the Department of Physics, B.J.M Govt:college, Chavara, Kerala, India (e-mail: najidhasb@gmail.com).
P. Predeep is with National Institute of Technology, Calicut, Kerala, India (e-mail: ppredeep@gmail.com).

 

Cite: S. Najidha and P. Predeep, "Ion Beam Induced Doping in Synthetic Elastomer," International Journal of Applied Physics and Mathematics vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 135-138, 2014.