Figure 2: Structural and compositional evolution of the three polymers. | Nature Communications

Figure 2: Structural and compositional evolution of the three polymers.

From: The deuterium/hydrogen distribution in chondritic organic matter attests to early ionizing irradiation

Figure 2

All of the experiments were performed at 30 keV and 300 K. A combination of ToF-SIMS (H+/C2H4+) and FTIR data (the peak areas ACH2, ACH, Aring) are presented for (a) polyethylene (PE), (b) polystyrene (PS) and (c) polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Data are all normalized between 0 and 1, allowing a direct comparison of different physical quantities. All evolutions are relative to the properties of the non-irradiated precursor. The coefficient KE is the electron dose constant obtained from a first-order rate equation (see the Methods section for details). On the three panels, the blue region represents the plateau, whereas structural, compositional and isotopic changes are still functions of the electron dose in the grey area. The doses required to reach 90% of the structural and chemical plateaus delimit the blue and grey regions of the plots. Data for PET are from ref. 22.

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