Abstract
Atomic oxygen is known to be the most prominent hazard for polymers and carbon- based materials in low Earth orbit (LEO), causing accelerated erosion and surface texturing. Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation is another important LEO environmental hazard for many of these materials. This study presents a new approach for protection of these structural materials for space applications.
The protection is based on surface modification by high-dose single or multiple ion implantation with specially selected species and subsequent oxidative post-treatment for surface conversion. The results of this study show that implanting silicon and aluminum or their combination with boron in high-performance polymers at appropriate conditions, produces a stable, oxide-based or compound-like protective surface layer following exposure to fast (E ≈ 2eV) atomic oxygen (FAO). The developed surface modification process provides dramatic improvement in resistance to erosion by FAO, and FAO combined with VUV in comparison to measurements on unprotected materials.
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Iskanderova, Z.A., Kleiman, J.I., Gudimenko, Y., Morison, W.D., Tennyson, R.C. (1999). Surface Modification of Polymer-Based Materials by Ion Implantation - a New Approach for Protection in Leo. In: Kleiman, J.I., Tennyson, R.C. (eds) Protection of Materials and Structures from the Low Earth Orbit Space Environment. Space Technology Proceedings, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4768-2_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4768-2_20
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