Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry of deuterated linear poly(dimethylsiloxane)

Mass spectrometry (MS) has previously proved to be very valuable for characterizing the thermal decomposition of poly-(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) via pyrolysis-MS. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has also been applied to identify the various fragments characteristic of PDMS and thus give fingerprint'' spectra for identification purposes. This paper describes the characterization of deuterated linear PDMS -[(CD[sub 3])[sub 2]SiO][sub n]- using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. The work is part of a program investigating the conformations and interactions of deuterated siloxanes in isotopic blends -[(CD[sub 3])[sub 2]SiO][sub n]-/-[CH[sub 3][sub 2]SiO][sub n]- using small-angle neutron scattering. It is therefore clearly important to demonstrate that no deuterium/hydrogen exchanges occurred during the synthetic methodology used.