Surface hardness enhancement of ion bombarded polycarbonate

The surface hardness of polycarbonate (PC) can be enhanced by ion bombardment with energy of a few hundred KeV. Nano indentation measurement on ion bombardment PC shows that the hardness of PC increases with increasing the ion dose. In addition, the surface properties examined by FT-IR show that the lighter ion mass causes the increase of C=O (1680-1750 cm^-1) and C=C (1500-1700 cm^-1) stretching vibration and the relative ratio of C-O-C peak near the wave number of 1200 cm^-1 decreases with increasing dose and energy of H⁺ ion. We discuss the surface hardness enhancement of PC based on these results.