Polyethylene terephthalate by near-ambient pressure XPS

Near-ambient pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) is a less traditional form of XPS that allows samples to be analyzed at relatively high pressures, i.e., at greater than 2500 Pa. With NAP-XPS, XPS can probe moderately volatile liquids, biological samples, porous materials, and/or polymeric materials that outgas significantly. In this submission, we show survey, C 1s, and O 1s NAP-XPS spectra of polyethylene terephthalate, a common, widely used thermoplastic. The C 1s envelope was fit with different approaches, i.e., to three, four, and five Gaussian–Lorentzian sum (GLS) functions. Hartree–Fock orbital energy calculations of a model trimer served as a guide to an additional fit of the C 1s envelope. The best fit was obtained by adding an extra component to the four-component fit to compensate for adventitious carbon or additives in the polymer. The O 1s signal was well fit with two GLS peaks with a 1:1 area ratio representing the C—O and C=O moieties in PET.